Handing Over Control Of Iraq To The Iraqis

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi commandos showed off skills they learned from U.S. military forces, who Saturday formally handed over control of combat operations to Iraqi security forces.


The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, was on hand to watch the final American combat team, the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, tender responsibilities to the 6th Iraqi Army Division.


President Barack Obama has ordered the current 64,000-strong U.S. presence to be down to 50,000 by September 1.


Six U.S. brigades will remain to provide support to Iraqi soldiers and police.

CNN

I know some folks, including some assholes on the left, don't want to give President Obama any credit for this milestone. But let me tell you what I remember. I remember in 2008 then Senator Barack Obama coming out for a withdrawal timeline for Iraq. I remember President Bush and then Senator John McCain blasting him for it and saying he wanted to "cut and run". Then suddenly when the argument was getting very heated the Iraqis themselves, after Obama visited Iraq, called for our troops to withdraw and had it written into our new SOFA with them. And even then President Bush resisted and McCain opposed it. But once the Iraqis demanded it they were pushed into a corner. But lets not forget what started the dominoes falling. And the Iraqi people had confidence that if Obama won the Presidency he would in fact withdraw our troops according to the deadlines.

I'll also point out that some of the same assholes now trying to minimize this with respect to President Obama, predicted over and over that he would back off the withdrawal date and try to keep a great amount of troops in Iraq indefinitely.

Well screw you guys, Obama got it done. And there is nothing you can do or say to change that history.

Remember All Those People Who Said We Invaded Iraq Over Oil?

Meet Peter Galbraith.

Now obviously we didn't invade for a measley $100 mill but I have a feeling that this story is just the tip of the iceberg.

Stay tuned...

Practicing The Art Of Journalism

Spencer Ackerman is one of the best and brightest young foreign policy and miltary affairs journalists in the business. Having said that the guy was having a rough time of it yesterday from the looks of his twitter feed. And then this morning it turns out he found out he had been scooped by the New York Times. But here is the thing, the reason why it appeared he had been scooped is because Spencer is actually a good journalist who believes in doing a thorough job of investigating before he puts something out. And when you watch this clip from Rachel Maddow's show you realize what the upside is for him of doing his job the way its supposed to be done.



Maybe the next time the New York Times will do their due diligence as well, lest they once again find themselves on that summer jam screen.

Finally The Truth About KBR Is Exposed.

Senator Byron Dorgan has posted about the investigation into KBR and their shitty work in Iraq that led to the death of several of our servicemen over at firedoglake.

There’s a new and damning report (PDF) from the Department of Defense Inspector General on its investigation into the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth. The report concludes that Staff Sgt. Maseth’s death was the result of shoddy electrical work, electrical work performed by U.S. military contractor KBR.

It also concludes that the Army failed to properly oversee KBR’s work, allowing the danger to U.S. troops from KBR’s work to continue and persist not only on Ryan Maseth’s base, but throughout Iraq (PDF) and Afghanistan (PDF).

Up to now, KBR has denied any link between its work and the electric shocks and electrocutions of soldiers on U.S. Army bases in Iraq. This report should make it impossible for the company to continue to deny the facts.

snip

Staff Sgt. Maseth was a 24-year-old Green Beret from Pennsylvania. In January 2008, he was electrocuted as he showered in his barracks on a U.S. military base in Iraq. The Army first told his family that he died because he took an electrical appliance into the shower. His courageous mother, Cheryl Harris, rejected that explanation.

Mrs. Harris appeared at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing I chaired on July 11, 2008 as we investigated shoddy electrical work by KBR in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also heard from whistleblowers that day, some of them former KBR employees who had first-hand, on site experience with KBR’s electrical work. We found evidence of widespread failure by KBR to take even the most basic steps to ensure its electrical work was safe. Whistleblowers told us KBR routinely hired non-electricians to perform electrical work, and that non-electricians were routinely hired to supervise their work.

They told us that even the most basic work – proper grounding, for example – was either not done at all, or performed so haphazardly it was a clear, obvious and immediate danger.
Meanwhile, KBR continued to deny any connection between its electrical work and the electrical shocks and even deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army continued to churn out excuses like the one initially given to Cheryl Harris.

Following the hearing, I immediately asked for a complete review of KBR’s electrical work in Iraq and Afghanistan and for a new investigation into Staff Sgt. Maseth’s death.

The results are now in.

The Inspector General concludes that KBR failed to ground equipment which contributed to the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Maseth. The IG also found that KBR failed to: employ personnel with adequate electrical training and expertise; report improperly grounded equipment the company had identified; and perform its work in the ‘skillful and workmanlike manner’ required by the contract.

The IG also reports that prior to Sgt. Maseth’s electrocution, there were 230 incidents of electric shocks in KBR-maintained facilities in Iraq from September 2006 to July 2008 – far more than should have necessary to alert KBR or Army officials that there was a major problem that needed urgent attention.

According to the IG, KBR’s shoddy and dangerous electrical work is a widespread, not isolated, problem in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Inspector General reports that so far, that review has found more than 53,000 sites at U.S. Army bases in those countries that needed urgent, major repairs.

snip

It is astounding that KBR continues to receive contracts for work in Iraq. Its many failures are now obvious, massive and cover a wide-range of activities.

It is unbelievable that KBR actually received an $83.4 million bonus for its contract for electrical work in Iraq, even though according to the Department of Defense’sInspector General, KBR’s work endangered and even killed U.S. troops.

I am renewing my call for the Pentagon to recoup the $83.4 million in bonuses paid to KBR under LOGCAP III Task Order 139 for its shoddy electrical work.

I also want to know what the Army is doing to improve its selection and oversight of military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The safety and very lives of U.S. soldiers depends on prompt, corrective action

I certainly hope that KBR is both made to pay the bonus money back and never given another contract from our government. And maybe even someone should be held criminally accountable for negligence.

DFH General David Petraeus.

Here is an excerpt from an interview General David Petraeus granted to Radio Free Europe.

RFE/RL: As you know, General, the debate over Guantanamo and enhanced interrogation techniques has become "Topic A" in Washington. In your view, does the closing of "Gitmo" and the abandonment of those techniques complicate the U.S. mission in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the overall struggle against violent transnational extremist groups or does it help it?

Petraeus: I think, on balance, that those moves help it. In fact, I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention. And as a division commander in Iraq in the early days, we put out guidance very early on to make sure that our soldiers, in fact, knew that we needed to stay within those guidelines.

With respect to Guantanamo, I think that the closure in a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice -- I talked to the attorney general the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary -- again, how to take that forward.

But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.

Now the question is will Dick Cheney and the rest of his minions attack General Petraeus? I ask because it is readily apparent now that anyone who disagrees with the Dick Cheney wing of the GOP faces the wrath of the wingnuts. They don't seem to care who it is, if you aren't for torture and you aren't for keeping GITMO open forever then obviously you are some pinko commie terrorist sympathizer who hates America. Now when you talk about General Petraues you are talking about a man who is commanding troops in two separate war theaters. A man who is responsible for the lives of thousands of our men and women. People who are on the front lines of the fight are in the most danger. Yet here he is endorsing President Obama's move to outlaw torture and his plans to close GITMO. At this point that calls for an almost immediate attack by the Republican messaging machine. But there is only one problem, its going to be hard to pull Petraeus down from the pedestal they built for him.

As the architect and implementer of the surge strategy in Iraq, General Petraeus was painted as a hero and a genius but a Bush Administration desperate for any good news on that front. He rose to almost mythical stature in the GOP and was defended vigorously when MoveOn attacked him in a full page ad. A man whom some felt should be the Republican nominee for President in the very near future.So now that he has come out on the opposite side of the debate from Cheney what can the GOP do? If they try to play down his endorsement they risk losing credibility. If they try to smear General Petraeus they risk starting an intraparty revolt. More than likely what I imagine what they will do is totally ignore it and hope it goes away. Unfortunately for us judging by the state of our media they will probably be allowed to get away with it.

(h/t Steve Benen)

Non Denial Denial

Just keep talking stupid. You are making the case for investigating your Daddy better than any Democrat ever could.

School Is In

Dave Waldman aka KagroX breaks out the whupping stick on all 3 other guests and the host on CNN over the media coverage of the Bush Administration's torture program. As sorry as some other supposed surrogates for the left perform I hope we get to see a lot more of Waldman on cable news representing our point of view!

Good Idea

From VetVoices:

Former VP Dick Cheney has requested the release of additional memos showing that torture and abuse saved American lives by preventing terrorist attacks. If the Obama Administration decides to release these memos, then I suggest they also release statistics from Iraq showing the number of foreign fighters that were recruited because of our policy of torture and abuse. It was tracked. I know because I saw the slides and because I heard captured foreign fighters state this day in and day out. The government can also release the statistics that show that 90% of suicide bombers in Iraq were these same foreign fighters. These foreign fighters killed hundreds, if not thousands, of American soldiers.

You should really read the whole thing.

Torture Is Not Just A CIA Issue

It would behoove all of us to remember, as the SASC report shows, that torturing detainees didn't originate with the CIA at GITMO. It actually started with the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soon afterward, the first alarms began to sound. Jerald Ogrisseg, an Air Force SERE psychologist, warned JPRA chief of staff Daniel Baumgartner that waterboarding detainees was illegal. In Oct 2002, Lieut. Colonel Morgan Banks, an Army SERE psychologist, warned officials at Gitmo of the risks of using SERE techniques for interrogation, pointing out that even with the Army's careful monitoring, injuries and accidents did happen. "The risk with real detainees is increased exponentially," he wrote.

But by then, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) had already issued two legal opinions, signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, declaring that the techniques did not amount to torture. JPRA training for Gitmo interrogators was stepped up. In December 2002, with Rumsfeld's authorization, officials of the Joint Task Force at Gitmo devised a standard operating procedure for the use of many SERE techniques to interrogate detainees.

Rumsfeld would rescind his authorization in a manner of weeks, after the Navy General Counsel, Alberto Mora, raised concerns about many techniques, arguing that they violated U.S. and international laws and constituted, at worst, torture. Mora met Haynes and warned him that the "interrogation policies could threaten [Rumsfeld's] tenure and could even damage the presidency."

But even after Rumsfeld in January 2003 rescinded the authority for the use of SERE techniques at Gitmo, they remained in use in Afghanistan, and later in Iraq. Since Rumsfeld never declared these techniques illegal, military lawyers down the line were able to cite his original authorization as Pentagon policy. JPRA instructors would eventually travel to Iraq to train military interrogators there.

In the summer of 2004, the JPRA was even considering sending trainers to Afghanistan, prompting another SERE psychologist, Colonel Kenneth Rollins, to warn his colleagues by e-mail: "[W]e need to really stress the difference between what instructors do at SERE school (done to INCREASE RESISTANCE capability in students) versus what is taught at interrogator school (done to gather information). What is done by SERE instructors is by definition ineffective interrogator conduct. Simply stated, SERE school does not train you on how to interrogate, and things you 'learn' there by osmosis about interrogation are probably wrong if copied by interrogators."

Intelligence Fail

I would imagine that this story about Congressman Hoekstra twittering to his followers where he and the rest of a Congressional delegation to Iraq are in clear violation of an embargo on that information in the interests of security and keeping the delegation safe will have the RedStaters and the Freepers all in a lather today. Of course that is until they figure out that Hoekstra is a wingnut Republican. IOKAYAR rules and all that. But I will bet you anything that Joe The Plumber is somewhere PISSED right now.

Of course it turns out that this is not his first offense.

On Second Thought

Ok I admit that I had a good ole time laughing at the story about the guy chunking his penny loafers at Bandar Bush. But then it hit me. What if those weren't shoes? The fact that this guy was able to throw not one, but two shoes at a sitting POTUS (and come damn close to finding his mark I might add) before anybody was able to subdue him is totally unacceptable. I would hope that each and every guy on that Secret Service detail gets their asses fired or at the very least are blacklisted and NEVER allowed to guard President Elect Obama. Like the saying goes, its all fun and games until someone gets hurt.



Don't make us have to go and get Denzel and nem to protect our PEOTUS.

Were They Wingtips?

A strange thing happened during George Bush's victory lap in Iraq. It seems an Iraqi journalist threw both of his shoes at our President during a press conference and almost connected. This could be a sign that the Iraqi people aren't to happy with U.S. for damn near destroying their country. Or maybe he just thought Bush needed a new pair

Updated with video

"This is the last kiss you dog"