Shoot the Messenger
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INSIDE: BEHIND THE MASK OF THE EXECUTIONER G AMERICA’S HOLY WARRIORS G RAPTORS, ROBOTS AND RODS FROM GOD G FOOTBALL & VIOLENCE ThCold e Type READER WRITING WORTH READING G ISSUE 11 G FEBRUARY 2007 SHOOT THE MESSENGER By JESSELYN RADAK DO YOU remember the famous 2001 trophy photo of John Walker Lindh – the American Taliban – the most prominent prisoner of the Afghan war? Although he was seriously wounded, starving, freezing, and exhausted, U.S. soldiers handcuffed him naked, scrawled “shithead” across the blindfold, duct-taped him to a stretcher in an unheated and unlit shipping container, threatened him with death, and posed with him for pictures. Parts of his ordeal were captured on videotape. Sound familiar? – SEE PAGE 22 ThCold e Type READER 3. BEHIND THE MASK OF THE EXECUTIONER By Mara Verheyden-Hilliard 11. EXECUTION IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM By Felicity Arbuthnot 15. AMERICA’S HOLY WARRIORS By Chris Hedges 19. FOOTBALL AND VIOLENCE GO TOGETHER By Robert Fisk ISSUE 11 | FEBUARY 2007 22. COVER STORY – SHOOT THE MESSENGER Editor: By Jesselyn Radack Tony Sutton [email protected] 27. SHOW ME THE INTELLIGENCE For a free subscription By Ray McGovern to the ColdType Reader, email Julia Sutton 31. LOOKING FOR AN EXTREME MAKEOVER at [email protected] By Bill Berkowitz Please type “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line 34. RAPTORS, ROBOTS AND RODS FROM GOD By Frida Berrigan 41. JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN By William Blum 48. BUSH ANTI-TERROR SUCCESSES ARE ALL FICTION By David Swanson 51. MONEY VERSUS THE MONSOON By Stan Cox 57. KILLING JOURNALISTS IS A WAR CRIME By Amy Goodman 59. WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS LEARNS ITS LESSON By David Walsh 2 The READER | February 2007 VICTOR’S JUSTICE BEHIND THE MASK OF THE EXECUTIONER BY MARA VERHEYDEN-HILLIARD On Dec. 26, 2006, the Appellate Court of the Iraqi Special Tribunal announced that The issue for Judge Awad Hamad al-Bandar, along with Saddam Hussein, was to be put to death. Bush is not With an initial filing made immediately that night and over the next two weeks, really the the writer and Carl Messineo of the Partnership for Civil Justice, working with former hangings, US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, sought emergency relief to stop the US but rather the government from transferring Judge Bandar to what was an extra-judicial killing. reality of the Judge Bandar was sentenced to death in a show trial, along with Hussein, in the hangings that absence of a competent tribunal or due process of law. The federal courts, including was revealed the US Supreme Court, refused to prohibit the transfer of Bandar, who was to the world undisputedly in US physical custody, based on the US government’s argument that its operations are beyond the reach of US courts when acting as, or as in this case renaming itself to be, a multi-national force. Judge Bandar was hanged in the early Monday morning of January 15, 2007 resident Bush has announced hangings, but rather the reality of the he is “disappointed” with the hangings that was revealed to the hangings of Saddam Hussein, world. The government was concerned Judge Awad Hamad al-Bandar that protest and even rebellion could Pand Barzan Ibrahim, adding that it spread in Iraq and throughout the Arab “looked like kind of a revenge killing.” world. But the Bush Administration This might be seen as strange from the was also worried about the dynami - man who hung them. Bush added that cally evolving domestic political scene. the real problem with the hangings was The people of the United States, hav - the appearance, that it made it harder ing seen something other than the ed - for him to “make the case to the Amer - ited and packaged presentation of the ican people.” This part was true. hangings, may question the US’s fic - The issue for Bush is not really the tional story of the situation in Iraq and February 2007 | The READER 3 VICTOR’S JUSTICE The US war rightly hold the US government re - That assertion may be news even to machine, which sponsible. Condoleezza Rice clarified General George W. Casey, Jr., identified has already the government’s displeasure with the as the commander of MNF-I who has sought to situation, calling for punishment of said repeatedly that he is subject to the exempt itself those who made and released unau - authority, direction, and control of the from restraint or thorized video images. Commander, US Central Command accountability First one hanging, and then two (CENTCOM) and that the MNF-I is “a worldwide, has more, and the press has filled columns subordinate command to CENTCOM.” now untethered with the US government’s self-serving Asked in his Senate confirmation hear - itself from the protestations. The media dutifully re - ing whether there would be any limits one last legal ports this fiction of concerns, regret and on CENTCOM’s authority due to the hold on it, the criticisms. To read these protestations international nature of the MNF-I, he US courts was remarkable to us, as we were si - replied that there were “none at all.” multaneously reading the US govern - He added, there is “no reporting chain ment’s briefs filed in federal court that goes back to the United Nations. opposing our emergency attempts to … My chain of command is through obtain due process for our client Judge the secretary of defense and the Presi - Bandar, who was to be hung. dent.” Judge Bandar, a civilian, was being The US war machine, which has al - held in the exclusive physical custody ready sought to exempt itself from re - of the US government at Camp Crop - straint or accountability worldwide, per. The US government controlled his has now untethered itself from the one fate, whether he lived or died. Had it last legal hold on it, the US courts. By really any concerns about the hangings, so doing, it asserts that the US courts the fact that the federal court system in do not have jurisdiction to address the United States was being presented claims lodged against it. It can take up with such matters was easily enough to arms anywhere against any civilians, stave off execution. But, the US gov - capture, hold them, torture them, have ernment actually wanted them dead. them killed, and merely by renaming it - Further, it is adamantly opposed to self can eliminate any threat of judicial there being any restraint on its lawless oversight or intervention. conduct in Iraq. The US government also simultane - The US government in its military ously argued that any stay in the ren - operations has sought to neutralize it - dition to death of Judge Bandar would self from the authority of the US courts interfere with the “exclusive authority” simply by renaming itself as the Multi- of the President as Commander in National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). It pre - Chief and “unitary chief executive.” sented this fiction to the court claiming Maintaining its open rejection of any that the US government did not con - check or balance against imperial au - trol military operations in Iraq. This thority, the government argued this may be news to you, news to most of was a matter of foreign affairs and mil - the world; especially news to the Iraqis. itary operations exclusively for Presi - 4 The READER | February 2007 VICTOR’S JUSTICE dent Bush to determine with no over - News of the hangings was fed to and Had things gone sight. reprinted by the press, mostly lies ex - according to cept the fact of death – all reported plan, minus the US puppets and propaganda with just as little responsibility as the all-revealing Continuing his fiction spun to the peo - war and the show trial that preceded video of the ple of the United States, Bush has them. The carefully packaged and ed - execution, all launched a component campaign of his ited news of the first hanging was be - three men would decision to inflict deeper death and de - trayed by the cell phone video, its grisly have been struction on Iraq and US servicepeople. appeal overwriting the accepted con - strung up by the He has begun to publicly criticize his structed news story. US government, puppet, Prime Minister Maliki. This is Because of a reporting quirk, the and it would to ensure that any failure of the pup - plan of the official propaganda machine have been peteer’s actions and plans, and result - was exposed. The initial news stories reported as ing public outcry, can be laid at the feet on the date of Saddam Hussein’s death, a sovereign of the puppet. Thus, his critique of the broadcast throughout the US media in act of their hangings. orderly fashion, contained so much puppet Iraqi Scapegoating their own puppet is “truth” as to report that there were government not an unfamiliar program to the three hangings at first. This proves that carried out White House and Pentagon. The US the coverage was not coverage at all with appropriate government supported its puppet Fer - but rather another example of re - gravitas and dinand Marcos in the Philippines until porters delivering a script obviously “dignity” the people rose up and drove him out. written in advance and handed to The United States supported its pup - them earlier by government agencies. pet Jean Claude Duvalier in Haiti until Our client, Judge Bandar, was reported the people rose up and drove him out. to have been killed on Dec. 30 along A little repudiation of the failing with Saddam Hussein. This was re - regime, at the stage of its dethrone - ported as a fact by virtually all the ment, is a tactic borne of practicality.