Inside the “bloodiest war on record for journalists” from a writer who has been warned not to return

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.haleakalatimes.com/news/story2320.aspx

Reality Check: An Interview with Dahr Jamail


December 19, 2006

Earlier this month, independent journalist Dahr Jamail visited Oahu and Kauai to speak publicly about his own unembedded reporting about the war in Iraq between 2003 and 2005. Before crowds ranging from 40 to 250, Jamail talked about the Iraq that he experienced, U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the possibility of further pre-emptive war and what he sees as the failings of American mainstream media. Contributing writer Jon Letman talked with Dahr Jamail during his visit to Kauai.

[lvx35]

1. woah! what have we here???

JL: In a November 2004 on line interview with Newtopia magazine, you said, “the Shia/Sunni rift is largely a CIA generated myth. There are countless tribes and marriages alike that are both Shia/Sunni. There are mosques here where they pray together.” Do you feel differently about that statement now considering what’s going on?

DJ: I don’t. I would say there’s even more evidence that, the fact of US involvement in the divide and conquer methodology basically. If you look at the death squads, the U.S. was instrumental in forming and supporting these death squads under John Negroponte’s watch, big surprise, the retired Colonel James Steele, the same James Steele from Central America who headed the military advisory groups there set these up. And I was in Baghdad when it happened. It was just before January ’05 when Newsweek ran an article quoting Rumsfeld talking about using the Salvador option. So there’s that, there’s very hard evidence of the U.S. and Brits alike planting bombs in mosques.

***

that would be stupid beyond measure...they couldn't be, could they?

[notadmblnd]

2. There's never been a doubt in my mind about how far the BFEE

would go in IRAQ. Instigate shit to keep the country unstable.. you bet!

[scarletwoman]

3. I hope that's a rhetorical question -- you can't *really* be shocked, can you?

Blowing up the "Golden Mosque" in Samara (sp?) was pure black ops -- how could it not have been obvious to anyone paying attention?

Anyway, in answer to your closing question: yes.

sw

[lvx35]

4. how can I be shocked, you ask?

The question is how many americans know we are paying out the ass to fight a war we are losing to ourselves??? With that out on the table, the only question I have to ask is how can you NOT be shocked!!!

[scarletwoman]

8. My point is, anybody who has paid close attention to the true (though hidden) history of U.S.

interventions around the world will not find assertions of U.S.' involvement in Iraqi death squads the least bit surprising. It's the sort of thing our country has been doing around the world since the end of WWII.

So, no, I don't find it in the least bit shocking, it's S.O.P. I am angry and saddened and disgusted, as I have been over every U.S. imperialistic incursion into Third World countries over the past 6 decades. But "shock" only happens if you're surprised. I admit I was surprised when JFK was assassinated, but never again since.

sw

[The Sushi Bandit]

5. kick this important article!

[The Sushi Bandit]

7. .

[Judi Lynn]

6. So many people quietly watched as Bush sent Dr. Death to Iraq.

It's very confirming, although tragic beyond words, to see people's expectations of what he would "accomplish" there were realized.

The world would be so much more peaceful, hundreds of thousands of lives so much less painful had he never been born.

"El Salvador" option. Yeah, right. Sounds real slick, doesn't it? There's nothing slick about mass murder.