New Republic Blog: Gruesome Report from Baghdad

[Hissyspit]

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=24150

LAWRENCE KAPLAN, Senior Editor: Even by the degraded standards of everyday life in Baghdad, this report from CNN's Nic Robertson comes as a shock:

One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog's head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed.

From its gruesome particulars, the report goes on to describe the fear that has gripped even the most hardened Iraqis during this latest round of sectarian bloodletting. Robertson's dispatch points to a revolting truth about the war in Iraq--one that American officers discovered long ago, but which has yet to penetrate fully the imaginations of theoreticians writing from a distant remove. The fact is, there is very little that we can do to dampen the sectarian rage and pathologies tearing Iraq apart at the seams. Did the Army make a mistake when it banished "counterinsurgency" from the lexicon of military affairs? Absolutely. Does it matter in Iraq? Probably not. How can you win over the heart and mind of someone who sews a dog's head on a girl? Would more U.S. troops alter Iraq's homicidal dynamic? Not really, given that, on the question of sectarian rage, America is now largely beside the point. True, U.S. troops can be--and have been--a vital buffer between Iraq's warring sects. But they cannot reprogram their coarsened and brittle cultures. Even if America had arrived in Iraq with a detailed post-war plan, twice the number of troops, and all the counterinsurgency expertise in the world, my guess is that we would have found ourselves in exactly the same spot. The Iraqis, after all, still would have had the final say.

posted 1:43 p.m.

[Erika]

1. The effects of W spreading liberty and freedom

unwanted and unrequested. How do bushbots live with themselves? Being blind and dumb?

[Zookeeper]

6. BushCo is so detached....

you know, they don't want to burden their beautiful minds. So, they completely botched this unnecessary invasion... well s**t happens. I'm sure they plan on doing better NEXT TIME. :sarcasm:

[wtmusic]

2. Surprise -- take away law and order, and there's no law and order

Introduce a homicidal dynamic and watch it take root.

[slor]

3. The Gates of Hell have indeed...

been opened.

[autorank]

4. We're just a few weeks ahead of "the horror." Rate this up please.

K&R

I've heard some reports I'm not going to repeat but this is extremely valuable. Finally, someone is telling the truth. I think that the American people, as a whole, are going to have the shock of their lives, no matter how old or young, when the grotesque nature of this war emerges. The torture Chambers pale by comparison to what's described. Amazing, people doing the very worst things to each other based on "sect." I'm just stunned.

[Hissyspit]

7. I just said to my mother tonight, who was upset by headlines of the rape

charges against the soldiers: "Mom, that's only what we KNOW about..."

[Carla in Ca]

8. Hi, autorank

This is very disturbing news in the OP. This WH has done a good job keeping control on the press but I think that is all about to change. Randi Rhodes was reading an article today written by a reporter from newsweek who was in Iraq 2003-2005. It was definitely a "much worse than anyone realizes" piece but, finally, one that is starting to also get the truth out.
As you can see from my sig line, I've been trying to get the truth out. We are getting more and more positive responses each week..it's working!
I could spend a fortune making a new poster every week with all the lies and distortions so I just use 'Worst pResident Ever' and that says it all.

Love ya, and K&R:hi:

[TomInTib]

5. Damn, a dog's head on a girl's body?

Damn.

And I thought we were sick with a mouse and a piece of conduit and a torch.

Damn.

At least I can seek some comfort in the thought that, after all this time, we were playing in the Minor Leagues.

[LibertyorDeath]

9. Truly depraved....

The death squads are hard at work trying to out

do each other.

[YOY]

10. Sorry, jsut WHO cut off the girl's head and sewed a dogs head on?

Iraqi insurgents? Local Military???\

[Hissyspit]

13. Sorry, that's all I got. I can't locate a CNN transcript and it's all

anecdotal, apparently, from Robertson.

[leftchick]

23. Robertson reveals nothing of the real horror

when he reports on CNN TV. :(

[arikara]

11. They may be reporting it now (in bits and pieces...)

but they still don't get it.

True, U.S. troops can be--and have been--a vital buffer between Iraq's warring sects. But they cannot reprogram their coarsened and brittle cultures.

Who caused the problem in the first place? They have the unmitigated gall to blame the culture of the people that they have hurt, devastated and enraged? Poke a stick into a hornet's nest and stir it around and around and around and you're going to get stung many times.

Unfortunately, blowback's a bitch, but especially for the children.

[fooj]

12. OMG!

:cry:

[lala_rawraw]

14. christian values? i wonder if those skinheads were part of it

you know... hate crimes without any rules... god, there are no words:(

[vickitulsa]

15. If they'll let Nic Robertson keep telling the truth HE knows...

we'll be getting a lot more of the real story very soon.

Although I have almost stopped watching any TV news -- an astonishing fact in itself for this lifelong news "junkie" -- I do periodically surf through the various channels purportedly reporting news to see what they are putting out. I also like to check for breaking stories, though I've learned since I've come to DU that I can find out what's breaking here as quickly as anywhere else!

When I do check the TV news channels, I've found for some time now that when Nic Robertson is given air time, I want to hear what he has to say. I've had the feeling for the past couple of years that his "supervisors" and those who exert control over what he can and can't say have curbed his reporting quite a bit. He has been in Iraq a long time, and he's not a purely American mouthpiece.

So while I'm shocked to hear the report in the OP as anyone would be to learn of such horrors, I'm not surprised either that atrocities of such magnitude are being committed in Iraq (and probably Afghanistan to some extent as well). I have close ties with a lot of Vietnam veterans, and my boyfriend is a former Navy SEAL who did two tours in Vietnam (or thereabouts -- you know how SEALs operate, right?). So I have long suspected with some certainty that we have been hearing very watered-down reporting of the bloodletting in Iraq.

I guess this explains why my rage at those who installed this pResident and his pals in the White House has been so intense and almost unbearable. I watch officials in this administration speak their lies to the nation and the world and all the while I am "seeing" pictures in my mind of the terror THEY have unleashed. Seeing "good Republicans" who also claim often to be "Christians" smiling their insipid support for such people in power has therefore been maddening to me.

Yes, I think most Americans are going to be in for a total shock if more of the truth about the situation in Iraq is accurately reported. But they shouldn't be so unprepared, they really shouldn't. What they have heard has been enough to cue them to the truth behind the scenes. Willful ignorance and selective blindness are no excuse whatsoever, IMO.

Someday -- and I hope it's someday soon -- Americans who have ignored the hard truth will be hearing "You should have known" on a regular basis. It's not like the fascist-controlled media, the corporate media, can be blamed to the point of exonerating citizens of their duty to be honestly informed. The truth is not only "out there;" it has been right in front of their faces all along....

[DemReadingDU]

16. Anybody hear Nic Robertson say this on TV?

anyone have a video clip, a CNN transcript?

[trumad]

17. Kaplan ---now that's rich...

Hey Lawrence---it's your fucking war and policy...now what you fucking idiot?

[vickitulsa]

18. I've been searching but so far

I have found nothing on this story on the Web. However, I did come across an interesting and revealing interview of Nic Robertson published online at a site called Indiantelevision:

http://www.indiantelevision.com/interviews/y2k4/anchor/nicrobertson.htm

Below are the excerpts I found relevant to this discussion. I'll keep trying to find more on the atrocities story in the OP and will post here if I come up with anything.

Could you give me examples where you were able to bring your own unique perspective to a story that was different from what the other channels were doing?
My view is that you should really listen to people. Never write a story in your head before you get there. When you have listened then get back to your story. It is crucial that you take all points of view into consideration. One man's freedom fighter can be another's terrorist. However because I am in the field all the time I don't see other peoples stories. Sometimes I don't even see CNN. I want the audience to imagine that they are in my shoes and to give them the best understanding.

When you file reports do you worry that what you say might anger the establishment like the Bush government?
No! My job is to tell people what is happening. Criticism from the establishment is not an issue. However I have been thrown out of three countries. We have a really good track record of reporting in a balanced and fair manner.

<snip>

During the bomb blasts in Mumbai last year some Indian channels because of the competition tried to outdo one another. This resulted in cases where correspondents exaggerated the situation by saying that there had been more incidents than what had happened. How is CNN able to avoid this problem?
We never exaggerate. We have a huge responsibility as journalists particularly on sensitive issues. We have to be very careful in our reporting. There is a growing realisation among the news media that these organisations see the media as a means for getting out their story. We need to recognise that.

We don't show people's heads being cut off. If there is content that is new then we will broadcast that. However, it is important to put an issue in the right editorial context. We need to understand that some groups kidnap or bomb to get media attention. The sophistication involved by groups who want to use the news media for propaganda is growing. They understand better how we as organisations work.

<snip>

What are the rewards for you from working in this field?
<snip> ... I am lucky in that I am able to follow world events, which interest me. But this comes with a huge responsibility of telling a story accurately with context and insight.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. Right about now Saddam is looking pretty good. n/t

[lostnfound]

20. Racist / ethnocentric propaganda by a leading neocon

Lawrence Kaplan is one of THEM, folks. I know Nic Robertson is one of the best on CNN, a reporter still worthy of the name, but Kaplan is trying to use a hearsay report to say that Iraqis are just naturally homicidal and "coarsened". What timing, after the documented horror of the teenage Abeer and her family at the hands of Americans, to drag out something which tries to be even more horrifying.

"One international official told me" doesn't count for much in my book.

[DemReadingDU]

21. hearsay report, urban legend

Until we can find Nic Robertson saying this in a CNN transcript or a video clip, I don't think this report from Kaplan is reliable.

Besides, wouldn't it take a long time to actually sew a dog's head onto a person?

[wtmusic]

22. Then they ate it, and had stewed babies for dessert

C'mon people. Just when did Cable Neocon Network start telling the truth?

[chill_wind]

24. MORE rancid garbage from the "paradigm-shifting" neocon shape-shifters

Suddenly pretending to have an epiphany of some kind now that it's all gone to shit and boy-HOW.

Oh, I don't mean that we might (or might not) eventually find out more one way or another about the reliability of this grotesque account that completely strains the imagination--

But The MAIN point of his whole sordid exercise seems to be just this:

"But they cannot reprogram their coarsened and brittle cultures. Even if America had arrived in Iraq with a detailed post-war plan, twice the number of troops, and all the counterinsurgency expertise in the world, my guess is that we would have found ourselves in exactly the same spot. The Iraqis, after all, still would have had the final say."

I say "sordid", because it strains all credulity to ask us to accept that he is only blooody now beginning to figure out how much broken pottery and rivers of blood he can be asked to share credit for as part of Bush's neo-con brain-trust.

Let us not forget:

The War over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and
America’s Mission, by Lawrence F. Kaplan
and William Kristol;
Encounter Books, 2003, $54.25.


AND...for all of this sudden fresh insight these days...I STILL DON'T HEAR YOUR PLAN, STAN...

PS--- Screw "The New Republic"!

[LibertyorDeath]

25. From DUer RedEarth new post from Riverbend

RedEarth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-11-06 12:53 PM
Original message
Atrocities....... new post from Riverbend(Baghdad Burning) Updated at 12:56 PM

Edited on Tue Jul-11-06 12:59 PM by RedEarth
Atrocities...

It promises to be a long summer. We're almost at the mid-way point, but it feels like the days are just crawling by. It's a combination of the heat, the flies, the hours upon hours of no electricity and the corpses which keep appearing everywhere.

The day before yesterday was catastrophic. The day began with news of the killings in Jihad Quarter. According to people who live there, black-clad militiamen drove in mid-morning and opened fire on people in the streets and even in houses. They began pulling people off the street and checking their ID cards to see if they had Sunni names or Shia names and then the Sunnis were driven away and killed. Some were executed right there in the area. The media is playing it down and claiming 37 dead but the people in the area say the number is nearer 60.


The horrific thing about the killings is that the area had been cut off for nearly two weeks by Ministry of Interior security forces and Americans. Last week, a car bomb was set off in front of a 'Sunni' mosque people in the area visit. The night before the massacre, a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia husseiniya in the same area. The next day was full of screaming and shooting and death for the people in the area. No one is quite sure why the Americans and the Ministry of Interior didn't respond immediately. They just sat by, on the outskirts of the area, and let the massacre happen.

...........

It's like Baghdad is no longer one city, it's a dozen different smaller cities each infected with its own form of violence. It's gotten so that I dread sleeping because the morning always brings so much bad news. The television shows the images and the radio stations broadcast it. The newspapers show images of corpses and angry words jump out at you from their pages, "civil war… death… killing… bombing… rape…" Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the latest- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?

In the news they're estimating her age to be around 24, but Iraqis from the area say she was only 14. Fourteen. Imagine your 14-year-old sister or your 14-year-old daughter. Imagine her being gang-raped by a group of psychopaths and then the girl was killed and her body burned to cover up the rape. Finally, her parents and her five-year-old sister were also killed. Hail the American heroes... Raise your heads high supporters of the 'liberation' - your troops have made you proud today. I don't believe the troops should be tried in American courts. I believe they should be handed over to the people in the area and only then will justice be properly served. And our ass of a PM, Nouri Al-Maliki, is requesting an 'independent investigation', ensconced safely in his American guarded compound because it wasn't his daughter or sister who was raped, probably tortured and killed. His family is abroad safe from the hands of furious Iraqis and psychotic American troops.


http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_riverbendb...