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Overtime
OVERTIME--June 2004 issue
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Dedicated to reflecting the collective wisdom of enlightened workers.
Linda Featheringill
4651 West 41st Street, Down
Cleveland, OH 44109
(216) 661-0794
lfeatheringill@hotmail.com
June 2004
Volume 5, Number 1
Greetings!
This month has been filled with news of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Now we know what Americans might do if they are given enough power and secrecy. This is probably true of other people as well. But keep in mind that we don’t know the whole story yet. Let us take a look at how this happened. -- Linda Featheringill
Timeline of shame
January 2002
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales writes a memo to President Bush, saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Part of the memo says, “The nature of the new war places a high premium on … the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists. In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions …” [Quoted in an article by Joan Biskupic for USA Today, May 26, 2004.]
August 31 - September 9, 2003
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who runs the military prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, conducts an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq. He suggests that prison guards can help set conditions for the interrogation of prisoners.
October-December
Many of the alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib take place during this time period.
October 13 - November 6
Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, Provost Marshal of the Army, investigates conditions of the US-run prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib. He finds problems throughout the prisons. Some units, including the 800th Military Police Brigade, did not receive adequate training to guard prisons, he notes. He also says military police (MPs) should not assist in making prisoners more pliable to interrogation, as their job is to keep prisoners safe.
November 19
The 205th Military Intelligence (MI) Brigade is given responsibility for Abu Ghraib prison and authority over the 800th MP Brigade.
November
Two Iraqi detainees die in separate incidents that involved CIA interrogation officers.
January 13, 2004
Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, an MP with the 800th at Abu Ghraib, first reports cases of abuse at the prison.
January 16
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez orders a criminal investigation into reports of abuse at the prison by members of the brigade. The military also announces the investigation publicly.
January 19
Gen. Sanchez orders a separate administrative investigation into the 800th MP Brigade. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba is appointed to conduct that inquiry on January 31.
Late January - early February
President Bush becomes aware of the charges sometime in this time period, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, although the spokesman has
not pinpointed a date. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld tells Bush of the charges, McClellan has said.
February 23
Seventeen US soldiers are suspended from duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
February 24
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provides the Coalition Authority with a confidential report on prisoner detention in Iraq. Portions of the report are published, without ICRC consent, by the Wall Street Journal on May 7.
March 3 - 9
Gen. Taguba presents his report to his commanders. He finds widespread abuse of prisoners by MPs and MI. He agrees with the Provost Marshal (Ryder) that guards should not play any role in the interrogation of prisoners.
March 20
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt tells reporters that six military personnel have been charged with criminal offences.
Mid-April
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asks CBS-TV to delay airing photographs it has obtained of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Myers says the photos would exacerbate an intense period of violence under way in Iraq. CBS delays its program for two weeks.
April 28
Secretary Rumsfeld meets with senators in a closed briefing on the war in Iraq. Rumsfeld neglects to mention the issue of prisoner abuse or the coming disclosure of photos. CBS “60 Minutes II” airs the photos, setting off an international outcry. Bush first learns about these photos from the television report, his aides say.
Early May
The CIA confirms that some of its officers hid Iraqi prisoners from watchdog groups like the Red Cross.
May 1
An article by Seymour Hersh, published on The New Yorker magazine’s website, reveals contents of Gen. Taguba’s report.
May 2, 2004
The Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (Myers) admits on ABC’s “This Week” that he has not yet read the Taguba report issued in March.
May 3
Officials say the Army has reprimanded seven soldiers in the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib.
May 4
US Army discloses that it is conducting criminal investigations of the deaths of 10 prisoners held in US custody in Afghanistan and Iraq - beyond the two already ruled homicides - plus another 10 abuse cases. This number grows by two on May 5, when the CIA says it is investigating more cases. [The latest figure I found for prisoner deaths is 37 - 5 in Afghanistan and 32 in Iraq. L.F.]
May 5
President Bush appears on two Arab television channels to address the scandal but does not apologize for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops. The following day Bush does apologize.
May 6
The Washington Post publishes four additional photos. White House sources report that President Bush privately admonishes Secretary Rusmfeld for not keeping him informed about the issue.
May 7
Secretary Rumsfeld testifies before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on the issue of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Separately, Army Pfc. Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, is charged with assaulting detainees and conspiring to mistreat them.
May 19
Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits receives the maximum penalty - one year in prison, reduction in rank, and a bad conduct discharge - in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
[MSNBC.com, May 24, 2004]
P.S. On May 16, 2004, The Guardian (London) reported that videos were made in the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I am confident that these will prove to be quite unpleasant. L.F.
The deteriorating news from Iraq now features the sick and disgusting treatment of prisoners by the American military. That this conduct is NOT isolated and that it is surely general practice - encouraged and programmed by those in charge - has to be the reality.
How far up the chain-of-command this behavior was known, sanctioned and devised is a matter for speculation, but it seems inconceivable that such widespread perverted bullying was not policy sanctioned from “The Top.” If such abuses were unknown to the top echelons of the military, including the President himself, then it is a poor reflection on how well they were doing their job.
Those of us who have served in the military are fully aware of the swaggering, intimidating thugs that comprise most of the “second-line” or “follow-up” military police and “intelligence” personnel who zealously abuse the power they have been given - and who are encouraged to do so by military “policy.” Newspaper photographs clearly show typical fat-arsed guards, armed and in numbers, demonstrating their macho bravery by forcing defenceless prisoners into the most degrading situations. Several prisoners have been killed in the process, possibly for refusing to indulge?
At the close of World War II, many German SS officers and Gestapo agents were recruited by the Americans to continue working against Russia during the Cold War. These people would ordinarily have been prosecuted for war crimes but instead they formed the foundation of the CIA. Their brutal interrogation methods have found acceptance in the USA and have been used and enhanced throughout the world every since - on behalf of American capitalist interests. That the leading American politicians are surprised and shocked at the treatment meted out to Iraqis is hard to swallow.
How anyone can imagine that the “hearts and minds” of Iraqi people can be won by these Nazi methods is difficult to fathom. If the intention was to “soften up,” shame and humiliate the Iraqis, it has been a complete and miserable failure. To my mind, it is the American people who have been irreparably damaged, shamed and humiliated as they allow their country to descend further and further towards a Fascist dictatorship. How will the ultra-Christian American bible-punching fraternity ever explain these actions?
[Gogglesworth, West Australia.]
The anxiety over Iraq easily bubbles over into anger for many people, who see what has happened in Iraq - especially the abuse of prisoners - as an erosion of American values.
“I just keep thinking: stopping that kind of stuff from happening is why we went in there in the first place,” said Stephen Zukowski, as he worked in a deli in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. “That’s as bad as their previous government.”
“It makes me mad. You just get the sense that we are not in the right anymore, if we ever were,” said Jennifer Eldridge, working at a supermarket in Hopkinton. “I think it gets worse every day and the worst thing we could do is send more people over to die.”
“I am angry with the president,” said John Lopez, a veterinary technician in the Miami, Florida Coconut Grove neighborhood. “We are there because of his obsession to go there, and I’ve gotten angrier and angrier. I can’t turn the television on in the morning to “Good Morning America” because in five minutes, I’m frothing at the mouth. It is a fiasco.”
[From an article by T.R. Reid for the Washington Post, May 28, 2004.]
Damn!
As the story of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib unfolded, many of use were overwhelmed with emotions - shock and horror and shame. Day after day, the news was worse and worse and we sunk deeper into our own private pits of depression. We were quiet and didn’t even try to communicate with each other.
We weren’t prepared for all of this. Frankly, we were blindsided.
We didn’t know that we raised a generation of young people who believe everything the damn CIA and Military Intelligence tell them. How could they be so naïve? We didn’t realize they would be willing to risk everything good in their lives for a few moments of power over other human beings. Damn it, children! What were you thinking?
We knew that the rationale for the war was a pack of lies, but we didn’t know just how stupid those in charge were. Everybody knew that the prison at Abu Ghraib had a gruesome history. Why would the US intelligence organizations want to set up shop there? That was stupid. By the latter half of 2003, everyone knew that Iraq had few, if any, weapons of mass destruction. Did the CIA really think they could change the reality of the situation by increasing pressure on imprisoned Iraqis? That was very stupid. All grownups know that if you humiliate your enemy, he will never forgive you and there will never be any peace. If Military Intelligence thinks this is the way to win the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people, then they are damn stupid.
I was among those folks in the US who were depressed and paralyzed by shame. I’m still ashamed of what happened, of course, but I’m not paralyzed any more. I am angry. I’m actually very mad. In fact, I’m damn mad about the whole damn thing! I’m mad at the whole damn lot of them! Period.
Yet there may be some good come of it all. The people in the US are burdened with a feeling of self-righteous that really interferes with their judgment. Perhaps if they can rid themselves of that we-are-more-holy-than-god feeling, they may be able to make better choices. Also, members of the media are asking themselves why they supported the war, why they believed the story about weapons of mass destruction, etc., etc. This didn’t happen until the pictures of prisoner abuse came out.
But I’m still angry - very, very angry. Damn!
[Linda Featheringill, Ohio, USA.]
ECOLOGY
The only way we can preserve the earth is to grant every living entity what it needs to thrive and take from it only what it can afford to give.
Arctic melting
Oslo - Global warming is hitting the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet in what may be a portent of wider, catastrophic changes, the chairman of an eight-nation study said Monday. He was summarizing what scientists have learned about climate in the region.
“There is a dramatic climate change happening in the Arctic right now … about 2-3 times the pace of the whole globe,” said Robert Correll, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment team. The group wrote an 1800-page report that is to be issued at a meeting in Iceland in November. The report combines input from scientists, indigenous people, and eight Arctic rim nations.
The warming might bring some good with it. For instance, the Arctic sea route is now open about 20 days a year and might be open 100 days a year in 2050. Russia might get easier access to oil and gas as the icecap shrinks and permafrost retreats.
But the broader possibilities are disturbing. Inuit hunters are more frequently falling though the thinning ice and habitats for plants and animals are disrupted. The Hudson Bay in Canada could be uninhabitable for polar bears within 20 years. The melting is destabilizing building on the permafrost and threatening an oil pipeline laid across Alaska. In parts of Scandinavia, birch trees are taking over traditional reindeer lichen pastures. The reindeer there now have to compete with elk and red deer, which are moving north.
Similar to how white clothing reflects light and heat, Arctic ice reflects vast amounts of solar radiation that would otherwise be absorbed by the planet. So when ice caps recede, sunlight that would have been reflected is instead absorbed by the darker mass of ocean and land. That warms the surrounding environment and intensifies what scientists call a “feedback loop” - in this case, a warmer planet melts more ice and that causes the planet to warm up even faster.
[MSNBC staff and news service reports, May 24, 2004.]
Seward, Alaska - After thousands of years in the waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the Columbia Glacier has retreated about 6 miles [almost 10 kilometers] in 18 years. The sudden movement poses a string of scientific questions that would be merely fascinating in any other part of the world: Why and how fast is the glacier retreating? Can we predict the flow of ice into nearby waters?
But here the questions are urgent, freighted with the weight of a potential oil spill. The glacier is disgorging more than a million tons of ice a day into the shipping lanes outside Valdez. These waters are traversed each year by more than 600 tankers laden with Alaskan crude oil.
In March 1989, the Exxon Valdez altered course to avoid ice from the Columbia Glacier and plowed into a reef, spilling 11 million gallons [over 40 million liters] of oil. In 1994, an empty tanker struck an iceberg, ripping a 20-foot [over 7 meters] hole in the bow.
The front of the glacier is 3 miles [5 kilometers] wide and 1300 feet [420 meters] high. During the peak months of August and September, it drops 100 tons of ice into the ocean every second.
[From an article by Ben Spiess for USA Today. Contributed by J.J.S., Wisconsin, USA.]
The San Rafael Glacier, Patagonian Chile flows westwards from the North Patagonian icecap at around 17 meters [about 52 feet] a day, cutting through rain forests and breaking up spectacularly into the Laguna San Rafael from a 70 meter [about 215 feet] high vertical ice cliff. The icebergs that are produced are often 100 meters long [slightly longer than an American football field]. The ice front of the glacier has receded for a kilometer since the early 1990s and iceberg calving activity has dramatically reduced. Scientists believe this is entirely due to temperature rise in the region and that soon the glacier will recede up the mountain away from the sea.
[The Guardian (London), April 29, 2004.]
Greenland’s icy mountains and the island’s entire ice cap could disappear in the next 1000 years because of global warming, European scientists warned today. If that occurs, sea levels will rise by 7 meters [about 22 feet], drowning low-level coastlines around the world.
Greenland is covered by the biggest ice sheet in the northern hemisphere: almost 772,000 square miles of ice, with a thickness of up to 1.9 miles [3 kilometers]. The base of the icecap is below sea level.
An annual warming in the region of 2.7C [4.9F] would mean that the rate of melting would outpace the annual snowfall. The greater the warming, the faster the snow melts. The worst-case predictions for Greenland involve an average warming of 8C [14.5F]. At those temperatures, seas that have risen by 2.5mm (< 0.1 inch) a year will start to rise by a steady 7mm [a quarter inch] a year.
There are already signs of consistent melting in Greenland. Researchers reported in 1999 that the ice sheet was thinning by about a meter [3 feet plus] a year.
[From an article by Paul Brown for The Guardian (London), April 8, 2004. Both articles from The Guardian were contributed by P.E.N., Colchester, England, UK.]
Wildfires
Spreading quickly through dry terrain, two large wildfires burning in New Mexico reinforced fears that the 2004 fire season will be worse than predicted just a few months ago … New Mexico and other Western US states are facing the possibility of another devastating fire season due to unseasonably warm temperatures in March and April, as well as drought and the potential loss of some fire-fighting equipment.
“Things are much worse than they were in February,” said Rick Ochoa, nation fire weather program manager for the Bureau of Land Management.
Years of drought have left states across the West vulnerable to extreme fire conditions. The greatest threat lies in the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana, and the Southwest - including Southern California, where conditions are the driest. The Northwest escaped the early dire predictions because of snow blanketing the Cascade Mountains but it now faces dangerous conditions, following a warm spring that melted the snowpack a month earlier than usual. The snow pack in the Cascades in Oregon was well below average this year.
In the state of Washington, the Department of Natural Resources already has fought 70 small fires this year, up from the usual 20. Forests are as dry as they typically are in late July or early August.
[Associated Press, May 24, 2004.]
This and that
The cost of food
According to an article by John Long for The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), and according to my own observations, grocery prices are steadily climbing. Dairy products are about 5% higher than they were a year ago, meat is 15% more expensive overall, and vegetables have risen 12-15% in price. Lean cuts of chicken and turkey cost 35-40% more than they did a year ago. Highly desirable types of meat - steak and salmon - have increased 25-30%. Bread is about 15% more expensive than it was last year.
My own grocery bill has increased by about 10% per year for the last 5-6 years. This year, however, the increase will probably be close to 15%.
The federal government says that inflation is only about 3-4% per year. I say that is hogwash.
[L.F., Ohio, USA.]
Outer space
In the May issue, Gogglesworth of Australia asked why so much money is being spent on search for extraterrestrial life forms. There can be a number of answers, but I think the basic one is CURIOSITY. It can get us into a lot of trouble, but it is probably one of the better qualities of humankind. (Other mammals have it, too.)
We also have another cardinal characteristic: we're lonesome.
To me, the basic question is: why would we think anyone else in the universe is even interested in us? We may think we're the summit of creation, but that opinion might not be shared. Other creatures might well look at us, and think: Ick!!
For a wonderful visualization of just how infinitesimal we are, see the opening credits of the otherwise cornball movie, "Contact." We start on earth, then the camera pulls and back and back and back: the planets roll by, the solar system rolls by, our GALAXY rolls by--and becomes a tiny point of light, then disappears entirely. Salutary.
[Joanne Forman, Taos, New Mexico.]
AIDS in Malawi
Coffin makers in Malawi are reaping grim profits from the AIDS pandemic that is devastating this poor southern African country. About 10 times as many coffins are needed today than a few decades ago.
According to government estimates, HIV/AIDS affects about 10% of Malawi’s 11 million citizens. About 640,000 people are believed to have died from AIDS-related illnesses since 1985. The United Nations, however, estimates that 15% of adults are infected with the HIV virus.
Life expectance in Malawi has been slashed to 38 years from around 50 as a direct result of AIDS. The disease is eroding the social fabric and limiting productivity, as working adults become too sick to produce food or other needed goods.
But it is a boom time for the coffin makers.
[Ed Stoddard, Yahoo! News, June 1, 2004.]
Christian Zionists again
A lot of people in the US think that this country’s policies regarding Israel and her neighbors is downright strange. Some of these folks think this is the result of influence by Jews living in the US, influence that is out of proportion to their actual numbers. But the problem might not be some sort of international Jewish conspiracy. The problem might be our own, homegrown Christian Zionists. Consider the following, taken from an article by George Monbiot for The Guardian (London), April 20, 2004. [L.F.]
In the US, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to Earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel’s occupation of the rest of its “biblical lands” (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity and the Messiah will return to Earth.
What makes the story so appealing to Christian fundamentalists is that before the big battle begins, all “true believers” (that is, those who believe what THEY believe) will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during an event called the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation that follow.
The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. This means staging confrontations at the old temple site (in 2000, three US Christians were deported for trying to blow up the mosques there), sponsoring Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, demanding ever-more US support for Israel, and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/European Union/France - or whoever the legions of the antichrist turn out to be.
We can laugh at these people but we should not dismiss them. That their beliefs are bonkers does not mean they are marginal. American pollsters believe to 15-18% of US voters belong to churches or movements that subscribe to these teachings. A survey in 1999 suggested that this figure included 33% of all Republicans.
When President Bush asked Ariel Sharon to pull his tanks out of Jenin in 2002, he received 100,000 angry emails from Christian fundamentalists and never mentioned the matter again.
For these people, the Middle East is a personal matter: if the president fails to start a conflagration there, his core voters don’t get to sit at the right hand of God.
Bush stands to lose fewer votes by encouraging Israeli aggression than he stands to lose by restraining it. He would be mad to listen to these people. He would also be mad not to.
[Contributed by P.E.N., Colchester, England, UK.]
Frank Girard
It is my sad duty to report the death of Frank Girard, publisher of the Discussion Bulletin for many years and mentor to many of us out in the field.
Frank was very supportive during the start-up of Overtime. He contributed money and advice. He encouraged me to find my own voice and to trust my own judgment.
As the editor of Red & Black Notes (Spring 2004) said, “The cessation of publication by the Discussion Bulletin left a hole. Frank’s passing leaves a much larger one.”
[Linda Featheringill]
Decapitation
I really don’t know what the truth is on this issue but I thought you might want to read the argument. I did wonder about the orange jumpsuit, which is commonly used in the US on prisoners in short-term lockup in local jails, as well as in Cuba. I always thought these orange coveralls were an American thing. - L.F.
Berg decapitation video was filmed inside the Abu Ghraib prison.
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 16, 2004 - (ACN)
There is now ample evidence that the video showing the decapitation of 26-year-old Nicholas Berg of Philadelphia by purported al Qaeda members is a complete fraud. The real Nick Berg may or may not be dead, but the heavily edited video is nothing but a fake. This is the conclusion of La Voz de Aztlan after a frame-by-frame analysis and the conclusion of hundreds of film, medical and other experts worldwide who downloaded, viewed and analyzed the video as well. Literally thousands of people worldwide requested the video, which is rapidly disappearing from the Internet, after our news service published "Nick Berg decapitation video declared a fraud by medical doctor" on Wednesday May 12 and which was linked by other independent news services on the World Wide Web.
With the advent of the Internet, computers and sophisticated programs it has become increasingly difficult for governments to "pull the wool" over the eyes of their citizens. The Internet has essentially allowed freedom-loving people around the world to form communication networks that can now out compete the best government intelligence agencies or special operations groups.
This has certainly been the case with the hastily released and shoddy video showing five phony al Qaeda members participating in the decapitation of Nicholas Berg that was intended, exclusively, to divert attention from the scandalous sexual abuses of Iraqi POW's that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Evidence in fact shows that the Berg decapitation was filmed inside the walls of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, this cursed dungeon where probably Satan himself roams its corridors.
It is now known that the opportune decapitation video was first uploaded from London, England to a now defunct website in a server located in Malaysia. The website was shut down as soon as conservative news outlets like CNN and Fox News were notified. These two news services wasted no time in coming out with headlines like "Islamic Terrorists Decapitate an American in Iraq". Within minutes, local news services from New York to Los Angeles were screaming "Muslim Animals Chop Off the Head of an American" and were showing only short segments of the fake video. Radio stations in Los Angeles have spent literally days since then talking about the Muslim barbarians and why it is so important to support the war in Iraq.
La Voz de Aztlan became mighty suspicious when we first saw a photograph of the purported Nicholas Berg sitting in front of his captors on a white plastic chair that looked very familiar. In addition, the orange prison overalls he was wearing in the video looked mighty familiar as well. La Voz de Aztlan is very lucky that we have a very large readership base that utilizes both e-mail and our "News-Tips Form" on our home page to send us information. Within minutes we were sent the URL where we could download the entire and original video of Nicholas Berg's decapitation. Immediately after viewing the video, we knew that many things about the video just didn't look right and which defied simple logic.
Some peculiar anomalies became readily apparent after watching the video and others followed after careful analysis. Many of the anomalies were pointed out to us by our readers who responded after downloading and viewing the video themselves. Please refer to the photographs published, along with this article, on our website
[http://www.aztlan.net/berg_abu_ghraib_video.htm] as these anomalies are described and enumerated below:
1. Notice the standard US Military Police issued prisoner overalls that Nicholas Berg is wearing in Photo 1. The orange color prisoner overalls that Nicholas Berg is wearing are identical to the ones Islamic prisoners are made to wear by the US Military Police at the Guantanamo, Cuba prison as shown in Photo 2.
2. Notice the white plastic chair that Nicholas Berg is sitting on as shown in Photo 1. It is identical to the white plastic chair that the now infamous Pfc. Lynddie England is sitting on at the Abu Ghraib prison as shown in Photo 3. This same white plastic chair can also be seen in the horrid photograph where an MP is sodomizing an Iraqi POW with his finger at the upper right corner of Photo 4. In addition, it can be seen on the lower left side of Photo 5.
3. The color and texture of the wall as shown in the frames taken from the video as shown in Photo 1 and Photo 6 are the same as those of the Abu Ghraib prison shown in Photo 4.
4. The most telling evidence that the video of the decapitation of Nicholas Berg was taken inside the Abu Ghraib prison can only be detected by performing a frame-by-frame analysis. La Voz de Aztlan did just that and some revealing frames came up that are difficult to see if the video is played on normal speed. Towards the end of the video, at frames 9306 through 9368, a person with a US military cap temporarily pokes about a quarter of his left head into the video. His neck, left ear and part of his cap and visor can be seen. We have prepared an animated gif with just the relevant frames that clearly shows this at Animated Photo 7. Look at the right hand side as someone with a military cap, possibly with a second video camera, pokes his head into the video. Compare this animated gif with the MP whose cap is circled on Photo 4.
Anyone who views the video will see that it is phony. The five so-called terrorists are phony. The one on the extreme right in Photo 6 is pudgy and is wearing very clean tennis shoes. This will not be the case with an al Qaeda fighter. Also, Photo 6 shows that at least three of them are wearing bulletproof vests. Has anyone seen al Qaeda members wearing heavy and cumbersome bulletproof vests? Look at the garb that all five are wearing. They look like Halloween costumes.
For the time being, the mainstream media is totally ignoring the above evidence. Hopefully soon some brave mainstream publisher will dare to bring this important information to the American people. The nation needs to know who Nicholas Berg was and what really happened to him.
[Hector Carreon, La Voz de Aztlan. Contributed by L.W., Ohio, USA.]
Unfortunately, no one has doubted that the man in the video actually had his head cut off. -L.F.
NOTE: I haven’t seen anything on videos or still photos taken at Guantanamo, aside from that one article in The Guardian. If you find any information on these, please send it along to me. Thanks. L.F.
Next month: We’d love to know what you think. These are our usual classifications:
-- Open - questions, comments, tirades, etc.
-- RSVP. React to previous statements.
-- The ecology.
-- Clippings from newspapers, etc.
On the Web:
Overtime is included in the website of Socialism for a Real Labor Union at:
socialismmarxdeleonforarealunion.org/overtime.html
[Socialism Marx DeLeon for a real union]
Money. Overtime is free, but there are expenses and any help with these would be appreciated. Please make checks payable to Linda Featheringill and mail to me at 4651 West 41st Street, Down, Cleveland, OH 44109. Contributions will be acknowledged in the next issue, or you can remain anonymous if you wish.
Finances at the end of May 2004:
Balance 13.42
Contributions 82.00
Supplies and stationary
Copying 36.27
Postage 35.53
Total expenses 71.80
Balance 23.62
Contributions: Anon. 10.00, C.M. 50.00, J.P 20.00, and a special thanks to J.J.S., who sent in his poker winnings - 2.00!
And, to Everyone, thank you, thank you, thank you. Linda Featheringill.