Riverside Racist

"Hmmm... edit... find and replace... Asians... with... Muslims... save!"

This evening Sarah and I were headed into the city, it was too rainy to bike so we took the citycat in. As we get on I notice that the door separating the front deck from the midships enclosed cabin is open and rain is blowing in so I get up and shut it. There's a few people milling around but none seem to notice the rain. Just before our stop a slightly shorter than average man in his late forties in jeans and a white t-shirt with thin blue stripes comes up to me and says something like, "I bet they're from up the river [something] live in tents fucking camels." Of course I'm quite astonished and I ask him what on earth he's going on about. He responds, "Camel fuckers, living in tents, it really pisses me off, they should slide the door shut, camel fuckers."

Given the volume of his voice and his projection it slowly dawns on me that he isn't talking to me at all, he's just pretending to. He hasn't responded to anything I say, even though it's along the lines of nod and smile. I look around and see a man sitting on the left of the row of seats in front of me. Mr camel fuckers nudges me conspiratorially and looks at him, opining, "Those camel fuckers live in tents, not like us, eh? We close doors."

He thinks the man is an Arab, even though he looks Pakistani or Indian to me. He's not talking to me at all, I'm a prop in a racist attack. A white racist is including me, a black man, in his subset of humanity in order to hurl racist slurs against someone he thinks is an Arab. Who says multiculturalism doesn't work? He hasn't met the other guy before in his life, the guy had nothing to do with the door being open. Mr camel fuckers just felt like calling an Arab guy some names. By the time I figure this out he's gone out on to the front deck and I'm still sitting in my seat wondering what the hell I should do. I don't know what I could have done really, I don't know if the other guy heard him or anything and I could hit him for calling me names because he wasn't.

I wonder how many people like that are out there, people who feel safe enough in the current environment of government and talkback radio inspired fear and hatred to attack people like that. I'm glad I've started shaving my beard again.

Didn't we used to be slightly better than Saddam?

IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. […]

IN LATE FEBRUARY 1991, FOLLOWING THE COALITION FORCES’ OVERWHELMING VICTORY OVER IRAQ, KURDISH REBELS STEPPED UP THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST IRAQI FORCES IN NORTHERN IRAQ. DURING THE BRUTAL CRACKDOWN THAT FOLLOWED THE KURDISH UPRISING, IRAQI FORCES LOYAL TO PRESIDENT SADDAM ((HUSSEIN)) MAY HAVE POSSIBLY USED WHITE PHOSPHOROUS (WP) CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST KURDISH REBELS AND THE POPULACE IN ERBIL (GEOCOORD:3412N/04401E) (VICINITY OF IRANIAN BORDER) AND DOHUK (GEOCOORD:3652N/04301E) (VICINITY OF IRAQI BORDER) PROVINCES, IRAQ.

In other words, the Pentagon does refer to white phosphorus rounds as chemical weapons — at least if they’re used by our enemies.

Via Think Progress

Rape rooms: Check

Secret Prisons: Check

Widespread torture and intimidation: Check

Chemical weapons used against civillian targets: Check

Rampant corruption: Check

At odds with Iran: Check

At odds with Syria: Check

If it weren't for the increased deaths and total anarchy, Iraqis probably wouldn't be able to tell that Saddam isn't in charge anymore. It seems that the only problem we ever had with the way Saddam ran Iraq was that his name was Saddam Hussein.

Conventional Terror...

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Conventional Terror...

It sat on my PC desktop for five days.

The first day I read about it on the internet, on some site, my heart sank. White phosphorous in Falloojeh. I knew nothing about white phosphorous, of course, and a part of me didn’t want to know the details. I tried downloading the film four times and was almost relieved when I got disconnected all four times.

E. had heard about the film too and one of his friends S. finally brought it by on CD. He and E. shut themselves up in the room with the computer to watch the brief documentary. E. came out half an hour later looking pale- his lips tightened in a straight line, which is the way he looks when he’s pensive... thinking about something he'd rather not discuss.

“Hey- I want to see it too…” I half-heartedly called out after him, as he walked S. to the door.

“It’s on the desktop- but you really don’t want to see it.” E. said.

I avoided the computer for five days because every time I switched it on, the file would catch my eye and call out to me… now plaintively- begging to be watched, now angrily- condemning my indifference.

Except that it was never indifference… it was a sort of dread that sat deep in my stomach, making me feel like I had swallowed a dozen small stones. I didn’t want to see it because I knew it contained the images of the dead civilians I had in my head.

Few Iraqis ever doubted the American use of chemical weapons in Falloojeh. We’ve been hearing the terrifying stories of people burnt to the bone for well over a year now. I just didn’t want it confirmed.

I didn’t want it confirmed because confirming the atrocities that occurred in Falloojeh means verifying how really lost we are as Iraqis under American occupation and how incredibly useless the world is in general- the UN, Kofi Annan, humanitarian organizations, clerics, the Pope, journalists… you name it- we’ve lost faith in it.

I finally worked up enough courage to watch it and it has lived up to my worst fears. Watching it was almost an invasive experience, because I felt like someone had crawled into my mind and brought my nightmares to life. Image after image of men, women and children so burnt and scarred that the only way you could tell the males apart from the females, and the children apart from the adults, was by the clothes they are wearing… the clothes which were eerily intact- like each corpse had been burnt to the bone, and then dressed up lovingly in their everyday attire- the polka dot nightgown with a lace collar… the baby girl in her cotton pajamas- little earrings dangling from little ears.

Some of them look like they died almost peacefully, in their sleep… others look like they suffered a great deal- skin burnt completely black and falling away from scorched bones.

I imagine what it must have been like for some of them. They were probably huddled in their houses- some of them- tens of thousands of them- couldn’t leave the city. They didn’t have transport or they simply didn’t have a place to go. They sat in their homes, hoping that what people said about Americans was actually true- that in spite of their huge machines and endless weapons, they were human too.

And then the rain of bombs would begin… the wooooosh of the missiles as they fell and the sound of the explosion as it hit its target… and no matter how prepared you think you are for that explosion- it always makes you flinch. I imagine their children covering their ears and some of them crying, trying to cover up the mechanical sounds of war with their more human wails. I imagine that as the tanks got closer, and the planes got lower- the fear increased- and parents searched each other’s faces for a solution, for a way out of the horror. Some of them probably decided to wait it out in their homes, and others must have been desperate to get out- fearing the rain of concrete and steel and thinking their chances were better in the open air, than confined in the homes that could at any moment turn into their tombs.

That’s what we were told before the Americans came- it’s safer to be outside of the house during an air strike than it is to be inside of the house. Inside of the house, a missile nearby would turn the windows into millions of little daggers and walls might come crashing down. In the garden, or even the street, you’d only have to worry about shrapnel and debris if the bomb was very close- but what were the chances of that?

That was before 2003… and certainly before Falloojeh.

That was before men, women and children left their homes only to be engulfed in a rain of fire.

Last year I blogged about Falloojeh and said:

“There is talk of the use of cluster bombs and other forbidden weaponry.”

I was immediately attacked with a barrage of emails from Americans telling me I was a liar and that there was no proof and that there was no way Americans would ever do something so appalling! I wonder how those same people justify this now. Are they shocked? Or do they tell themselves that Iraqis aren’t people? Or are they simply in denial?

The Pentagon spokesman recently said:

"It's part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like we use any other conventional weapon,"

This war has redefined ‘conventional’. It has taken atrocity to another level. Everything we learned before has become obsolete. ‘Conventional’ has become synonymous with horrifying. Conventional weapons are those that eat away the skin in a white blaze; conventional interrogation methods are like those practiced in Abu Ghraib and other occupation prisons…

Quite simply… conventional terror.

Baghdad Burning

There are pictures here, if you can bear to look. Pictures of children burned alive or killed by having their lungs oxidised by white phosphorous. WP is not just a harmless illumination round that can kill if a chunk lands on you. It's also used in shells that burst apart to release a fine powder that if breathed will kill you by burning your lungs. If it lands on you it will burn your skin. It's pretty much the same as WWI chlorine/mustard gas. Clearly it's a higly effective round. I know for sure that if someone killed my family like that I'd spend my every waking moment looking for a chance to do the same to them, or their family or maybe even anyone even remotely associated with them, who knows, it'd probably drive me insane. What I wouldn't do is cower meekly in terror.

Thanks John Howard, for forever staining my country with the shame of taking part in this... mass murder. History will judge you and it will not be kind to your precious legacy. God willing, when you finally die, peacefully in your bed after a long and comfortable life no doubt, I will still be able to find your grave and paste 8x10 glossies of your true legacy all over it. It'd be worth being done for sedition.

Y'allah! it ain't like we cut someone's freakin' head off or nuthin!

Iraq plays down claims of abuse

Iraq's interior minister says reports of prisoners being tortured at an Iraqi-run centre have been exaggerated.

Only a few of the 170 detainees at the Jadiriya centre in Baghdad appeared to have been maltreated, Bayan Jabr said.

But he made clear that no abuse would be tolerated. The prisoners, discovered by US forces on Sunday, had reportedly been tortured and were malnourished.

Mr Jabr spoke as the US warned the Baghdad government not to let sectarian militias take over detention centres.

"I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," he said.

By torturing them until they reject torture!

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says that the minister has been politically scarred over the revelations of abuse and went before the press reluctantly.

Mr Jabr acknowledged that several detainees had been mistreated - but despite an investigation now under way, he did not seem to know how many, our correspondent says.

At one point he spoke of five, at another point of seven.

5, 7, 160 like his deputy mentioned the other day, who's counting? You better not be counting Hamid... or else...

'Dangerous'

Mr Jabr also said some of the men found at the Jadiriya centre had been foreign terror suspects, and that he had personally requested they be kept there because they were dangerous.

"These are the most criminal terrorists who were in these cells," he said.

Displaying a unique interpretation of due process

Leaders from Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority have long complained about alleged human rights violations by the Shia-dominated provisional government.

They neglected to point out the irony of the ethnic group that used to run secret torture prisons being tortured in secret prisons run by the group they used to torture, installed by the country that had endorsed the intial group of torturers in the first place. Whew, international relations, it ain't for everyone.

Sunni groups have also demanded an international inquiry into allegations that Shia militias linked to the interior ministry were responsible for the abuse.

In his news conference, Mr Jabr denied that either militiamen or Iranian intelligence operatives had been working at the facility.

He also played down concerns over an impending sectarian crisis, saying that inmates at the centre included both Shias and Sunnis.

Shortly afterwards, the American embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying US officials had "made it clear to the Iraqi government that there must not be militia or sectarian control or direction of facilities or ministries".

All your prison are belong to us! Seriously, militias? Freelance torture is so 80s, these days you pay professionals to do it, just like the Americans.

Mr Jabr's deputy, Maj Gen Hussein Kamal, had earlier said he wanted to place all of Iraq's internal security services under his ministry's control in order to prevent future cases of abuse.

"We want to gather all security departments under the wing of the Interior Ministry," he said.

Gen Kamal admitted that the Iraqi government had long feared such activities.

"What we were afraid of has happened when some prisoners were subjected to ill-treatment at the hands of the investigators," he said.

"We strongly condemn such illegal acts. All those responsible will be punished whatever their rank."

However, Gen Kamal also said the alleged abuse had been isolated incidents.

All 160, er 7, no 5... 5! of them.

Cash Money, foo...

American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq

In what is expected to be the first of a series of criminal charges against officials and contractors overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, an American has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to American occupation authorities and their spouses to obtain construction contracts, according to a complaint unsealed late yesterday.

The man, Philip H. Bloom, who controlled three companies that did work in Iraq in the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort, was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money and interstate transportation of stolen property, all in connection with obtaining up to $3.5 million in reportedly fraudulent contracts.

The complaint, unsealed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, also cites two unnamed co-conspirators who worked in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American administration that governed Iraq when the contracts were awarded in early 2004. These were the officials who, with their spouses, allegedly received the payments.

[...]

The complaint says that in order to obtain lucrative reconstruction contracts, Mr. Bloom paid at least $200,000 a month to an unspecified number of coalition authority officials, including the two co-conspirators and their spouses. Neither co-conspirator is named in the complaint, although it indicates that one is cooperating with the prosecution.

The other co-conspirator, the complaint says, held the position of comptroller and financing officer for "C.P.A. South Central Region in Iraq," which included Hillah. This person controlled $82 million "to be used for payment of contract services rendered in Al Hillah, Iraq, including contracts awarded to Bloom," the complaint asserts.

A United States government official said this person was named Robert J. Stein.

The complaint says the contracts Mr. Bloom obtained "were purported to be for the rebuilding and stabilization of Iraq" in Hillah and Karbala, a holy city in the south. The work included "the renovation of the Karbala Public Library; demolition work related to, and construction of, the Al Hillah Police Academy; the upgrading of security of the Al Hillah Police Academy, and the construction of the Regional Tribal Democracy Center."

With the assistance of the alleged co-conspirators and others, the document says, Mr. Bloom submitted multiple bids on the same contracts, using the names of different companies that were either controlled by Mr. Bloom or did not exist. Once there were sufficient bids to satisfy United States government regulations, the co-conspirators, including Mr. Stein, would ensure that the contract went to one of the companies, the complaint says.

"The value of these contracts ranged up to $498,900," the complaint says. "Co-conspirator 1's approval authority for awarding contracts was limited to contracts less than $500,000."

In an effort to clear things up for potential investors, we would like to present:

Lil Jon's guide to doing business in Iraq.









































"Nope."


























"E-yea-uuhhh!!! Heee-yeeeahhh!! Yeeeah!!!!"



That was Lil Jon's guide to doing business in Iraq.

The Penguin from Hell

Finally got it working

After much downloading and a lot of pain, I've finally got Linux up and running, and connected to the internets, which was no easy feat. Forget about switching over to Linux unless you're prepared to learn entirely too much about how your computer works and willing to invest a fair bit of time getting it going. However if you do, it's not half bad, purty looking, reasonably usable.

My main complaint is the difficulty in finding help. I'm not averse to learning the things i need to but information seems to be hoarded in the Linux community, you have to do a fair bit of googling if you want to find out about something. Other than that, it's great. the distribution I picked, Ubuntu (it's not an ancient "African" word by the way. what is it with white people and an inability to differentiate when talking about Africa, a continent of 800 million people with over 800 languages in 53 nations? Be specific, it's a big place) Anyway Ubuntu is a word in Zulu and Xhosa which translates roughly as an idea of community spirit and mindedness, specifically thinking of the benefit of others. It's an 'ancient' word in the same way that 'hello' is an ancient English greeting. It's a pretty good distribution though.

We Made it!

Oh yes, we did.

First Ghana, now Australia, this is going to be the best World Cup, ever.

We don't Target Muslims

Suspect is 'mentally disturbed'

By Matthew Moore
November 16, 2005

Khaled Sharrouf, 24, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic four years ago and suffers mental illness that would probably have influenced his behaviour in making the alleged remarks, according to the author of one of the reports.

Revelations of Sharrouf's mental state come a day after police released a statement describing how he and seven others they allege were planning terrorist attacks had purchased chemicals that could be used to make bombs and had travelled to properties near Bourke to prepare for their assaults.

Apart from his desire to die in an attack, police allege Sharrouf went to a store in Chullora last month with several other members of the group and was caught trying to steal batteries and six digital timers.

Bomb-maker lucky to be alive - and on bail

By Malcolm Brown and Geesche Jacobsen January 13, 2004

The man who exploded a huge bomb at Doonside is expected to walk free on bail this morning after a magistrate ruled he did not intend to harm anyone and had no motive other than his own gratification in setting off the explosion.

Mark John Avery, a 27-year-old electrician who allegedly detonated the bomb by lighting a sparkler and "running like hell", was lucky not to have killed himself, Blacktown Local Court heard yesterday.

Avery told police he learnt how to make the bomb from the internet and had bought the ingredients from hardware stores, pool shops and agricultural suppliers.

Magistrate Brian Lulham said there was no evidence Avery had an expert knowledge of explosives. "I suppose the worrying aspect of this matter is that any person could acquire these items," he said.

Police ministers are reviewing the way ammonium nitrate, a common fertiliser, is sold.

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, told ABC television last night governments were looking at a variety of ways to limit unlawful use of such chemicals.

The NSW Police Minister, John Watkins, said he wanted a sensible, quick, nationwide solution that would make the community safer.

"But we have to also take into account the needs of law-abiding farmers, gardeners and even people with swimming pools," he said.

Avery's lack of knowledge of explosives was supported by the fact he had used a sparkler to set off the device. Mr Lulham said: "I don't know how you could get away with it and not kill yourself!"

Avery, who wiped away a tear, nodded. Mr Lulham: "That fact more than any other would cause you not to have any more to do with chemicals, do you understand?"

Avery: "Yes."

The explosion blew a hole two metres deep and five metres wide, and spread bits of the car over 350 metres, smashing it so completely that neither its model nor make could be identified from the wreckage, the court heard.

Yesterday a Queensland man was caught with a real stockpile of actual, homemade explosives. He was released on bail. The admiration of your peers to anyone who can actually find the story, I haven't been able to. Bet you he's not a Muslim.

Thorpey for Queen

VS






















No contest.

Workchoices, Australia says No

'Curtheth! Thwarted again!'

You might have noticed 'workchoices' ads disappearing from their primetime slots lately. The funny thing is that they seem to be replaced with the 'Violence Against Women, Australia says No' ads which are appearing pretty much where the workchoices ads used to. Sarah's bet is that the govt. paid for X amount of broadcasting time and after using $50,000,000+ of it to poison public opinion and turn every man, woman and child in Australia into a labour union supporter, Howard seems to have decided to back off a bit and gnaw away at his problem from a different angle. The public reaction to 50 million public dollars being used to sell them a pile of manure probably helped his decision too. Now it's terror and battered women. You heard it here first.

The question is where to from here? Obviously he hasn't given up on it, watch out for 'substantial changes and consultation' or some other colour of lipstick for the workchoices pig.

Leader of the Free World

“We do not torture. And, therefore, we’re working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it possible -- more possible to do our job.” - George W Bush, not torturer.

"They made me stand on a box with a robe on my head and arms flat out in the air. They told me they would electrify me. I did not believe them. Then they took two wires and stuck them into my body. I felt like my eyeball was falling out. Then I fell to the ground." - Haj Ali al-qaysi, not tortured by Americans.

"What U.S. forces did to me, Saddam Hussein himself did not do," al-Radi said through a translator. "During Saddam Hussein's time, we used to be tortured. The scars from the torture I received during the previous regime still mark parts of my body. But I was never forced into nudity. There were never any immoral practices during Saddam Hussein's regime." - Saddam Saleh al-Radi, not tortured by Americans.

"Frederick had come once or twice with a group of dogs," Abbas said. "They would tie us to the doors and then unleash the dogs on us. Graner was a disgrace to all civilized and democratic values every day. Graner enjoyed seeing prisoners tortured and tied up in the cells." ...

"Usually when prisoners are brought in, Graner would be present," Abbas said. "First of all, they would be made naked, with their hands behind their backs. Then, they would put the bag over their heads, using shoes to beat them on sensitive parts of their bodies, pushing them against the walls." ...

"He made me put my hand out in the cell bars and would stomp with his boots on this hand." - Haj Ali Shallal Abbas, not tortured by Americans.

"My son was beaten in front of my eyes," al-Hasani said through a translator. "The hood was over his head. And he was dragged on the floor. And he was pushed into the walls."

Her son was released the same day he was beaten, something that was kept from al-Hasani during her whole three months in prison.

Al-Hasani's family ties were twice exploited - by the beating of her son, and while she was being held in the high-security interrogation center near Baghdad International Airport.

"For six days, the hood was not removed from my head," she said. "Neither were my handcuffs taken off. When they pushed a young girl into my cell, she had a hood on. And I thought it was my daughter. But when I removed the hood, it was someone else. I broke down." - Mithaal Sultan al-Hasani, not tortured by Americans.

Business and the Beast

Forget the fact that the sanctions against Iraq were overseen by the US and UK who had a veto on every single thing imported into Iraq and who turned a blind eye to smuggling and sanctions rorting so long as it benefitted their friends. Ignore the widespread suffering they caused in Iraq and how utterly ineffective they were on Saddam.

Isn't it precious that the company that accounted for 14% of all kickbacks to Saddam under the oil for food program is our very own Australian Wheat Board. Of course this probably doesn't account for US companies, but alas, most information concerning them is classified. I wonder why? It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that American companies (the mob that wanted the sanctions) were responsible for 52% of kickbacks to Saddam. Anyway right up until the first Australian bomb fell on Iraq an Australian company, one of our biggest exporters, intimately connected with the government, was greasing Saddam's palm. Even as John Howard hopped around like a Punch & Judy puppet, decrying Saddam as an evil the world had never seen, his friends in the corporate sector were handing out money to Saddam Hussein like Shane Warne in a strip club.

In fact the head of the AWB at the time did such a good job of funnelling baksheesh to Saddam that Alexander Downer, Lord of Baghdad, appointed him to a team meant to 'modernise' Iraqi agriculture, nudge nudge, wink wink. Something tells me that the 'problems' regarding wheat imports into Iraq we had recently were just about who got paid and how much. Obviously we just don't have as much clout as we used to.

Thank me later

Everyone's had this problem, it's a hot day, you want a cold beer so you go get one but 15 minutes later it's hardly ice cold. Let's face it, a stubby holder just won't cut it yet what options does a regular guy have for keeping his bottled beverage chilled? Well, strap yourself in while I show you how to make your own beer cooler out of stuff you've got lying around.

You will need an icepack, I don't know what size it should be, get one that's big enough.




















A container that's almost as tall and twice the diameter of your beverage of choice, having a handle helps too, as you'll see.





















Crush your (frozen) icepack until it's more or less flat then curl it into a 'C' shape and fit it into the outside of your container like so. If you've used a bag of frozen water, you're an idiot and this won't work, crush the ice, shove it in the cup and rest your bottle on top, pulling it out for every swig like a poofy Frenchman with a champagne bottle, poof.

If you've followed my instructions you should have something that looks like this.

Top view, note the 'C' shape and tight fit of the bottle, this is good:



















Side view:




















Grab the handle and enjoy your ice cold beer, the adoration of any nearby women and the envy of your mates.





















Enjoy.




















"You can make a beer cooler? That's sooooo sexy! Take us home now!"