Category: Atrocities

128,053 Iraqi Civilians Killed since 2003

On By Norbert HauptIn AtrocitiesLeave a comment

Check out the site IraqBodyCount and see for yourself. 128,053 Iraqi civilians have been killed since 2003.

The Iraqi dictator was vilified because “he killed his own people.” He did. He is gone now, and so is his brood.

However, I do not believe he would have killed 128,000 of his own civilian population in the 10 years since.

I do not think his regime was a good one. But I do criticize our own motives. While he was at war with Iran, he was good enough for us, we propped him up, sent him weapons and aid, and trained his soldiers. Then we decided he was a bad guy and we turned on him.

Since then, we have contributed to the killing or Iraqi civilians, first as collateral damage in the war, and now as part of the drone program. Of course, many Iraqi civilians are being killed by Iraqis themselves due to the sectarian strife that was left after we took away their government and dismantled their infrastructure.

But the moral upper hand we have? I think not.

 

Police State USA: Our Sick “War on Drugs”

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities4 Comments

Warning: Description of Graphic Violations by American Law Enforcement

This article in Police State USA illustrates in graphic and gory detail the detention and sexual violation of an innocent American woman crossing the border from Mexico in El Paso.

First federal agents at the border chained her to a table and performed a cavity search, using their own fingers. When they failed to find any contraband, they hauled her to the El Paso University Medical Center where Dr. Christopher Cabanillas and Dr. Michael Parsa were instructed to perform invasive procedures and X-rays for four hours, under the eyes of the federal agents. They found nothing.

Before the woman was released, genitals and anus raw from handling, they asked her to sign a consent form, after she had obviously not given consent to any of this, in exchange for “not being billed for services.” When she refused, they billed her $5,000 for medical “services.”

This article is not for the faint of heart and it’s not happy holiday reading. Nevertheless, if only a fraction of what is illustrated here is true, the ramifications are crushing. Any one of us, no matter what gender, age, nationality, race or background could get caught in this dragnet of our supposed “law enforcement system.” If any federal agent at any border crossing decides to screw with us, there is no recourse. Rapes will be performed in the name of the “war on drugs” in the name of the safety and freedom of the American people, in OUR NAME.

I find this situation outrageous.

It reminds me exactly of the types of atrocities the Nazi state committed in Germany in the 1930s on anyone at all that any agent chose to abuse. There was no recourse. There were rapes and torture and imprisonment for years in concentration camps. Anyone could be a victim.

Nazi Germany could happen because nobody stood up against it when it started out. If we let our revered “law enforcement” do just anything they want to innocent victims now, I ask, what happens when they come for us?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

– Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime

Elephant Abuse in Thailand

On By Norbert HauptIn Animal Intelligence, Atrocities, Bad Product, TravelsLeave a comment

Elephants are known to be one of the most intelligent species on Earth, right along with cetaceans and primates (which includes humans).

According to Wikipedia, the elephant brain of elephants is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity. Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, play, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory, and language. Further, evidence suggests elephants may understand pointing: the ability to nonverbally communicate an object by extending a finger, or equivalent. All indicate that elephants are highly intelligent; it is thought they are equal with cetaceans and primates in this regard. Due to the high intelligence and strong family ties of elephants, some researchers argue it is morally wrong for humans to cull them. Aristotle once said that elephants were “the animal which surpasses all others in wit and mind.”

I learned a lot about elephants when I read the book Modoc, which I reviewed here.

In Thailand, wild elephants were once abundant, but now there are only about 2,000 left. In contrast, 4,000 elephants are kept in captivity by humans, both for work and for tourism. It is the highlight of many a vacation to have a picture taken riding an elephant.

I was shocked when I saw this  video, which exposes some of the abuse of the elephants, just so tourists can have their pictures. This is a must-see video for anyone about to travel to Thailand.

Movie Review: Dirty Wars

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Movies, Political1 Comment

DirtyWars

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America’s expanding covert wars. Dirty Wars is a jaw-dropping documentary that is going to literally scare the shit out of you. If only a small percentage of the atrocities committed by American soldiers shown in this movie are true, if a single one only is true, then I am personally outraged.

Scahill shows the alleged activities of JSOC, which stands for Joint Special Operations Command. JSOC is an elite unit of the U.S. military, lead by three-star Admiral McRaven. It is a component command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is charged to study special operations requirements and techniques to ensure interoperability and equipment standardization, plan and conduct special operations exercises and training, develop Joint Special Operations Tactics and execute special operations missions worldwide. It was started in 1980.

According to Scahill in Dirty Wars, this unit has morphed into a special branch of our military, reporting directly to the White House, and is used to execute raids of high value targets in the “war on terror.” Starting in Afghanistan, units burst into people’s houses in the middle of the night, sometimes kill, apparently by mistake, innocent children, pregnant women, men who are trained by the U.S. and perform functions in legitimate local government. Then they eradicate the evidence and just leave. There is no accountability. There is no recourse for the victims. Such raids went on, and are probably going on now, in Afghanistan to the tune of dozens every night. Meanwhile, according to Scahill, this war on terror, has spread to dozens of other countries on all continents.

Watching this movie brought me to the conclusion that our war on terror is unwinnable. We started out with a hitlist of 57 (remember Bush’s deck of cards, with bin Laden at the top?). The list grew into hundreds, and now lists thousands of people, including American citizens, who are on our “kill list.”  It appears that the president gives the order, and military teams around the world assassinate individuals, with guns, bombs and drones.

Do we really think by doing that we reduce the list of targets? Of course not. For every “terrorist” killed, there are several younger brothers that are then ready recruits for vengeance. This will never end.

What is a terrorist?

A terrorist is somebody that comes into another person’s home at night, kills complete strangers, dazed and disoriented people, men, women, and children, and then leaves without a trace and without accountability.

According to Dirty Wars, that’s exactly what we are doing, not just in Afghanistan, but in 75 countries around the world.

If this documentary is even partially true, it’s we who are the terrorists. If this is even partially true, I am disgusted with our policy, our actions and our administration for letting it happen, in our name, and in the name of freedom.

Go see for yourself, watch Dirty Wars, and draw your own conclusions.

Rating: ****

The Cost of War in Afghanistan – 2013

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Commentaries, Feelings, PoliticalLeave a comment

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a drone strike that killed a two-year-old child, and wounded two women, according to the U-T San Diego of December 1, 2013. The article further stated that Karzai condemned the attack and said all strikes and foreign raids on Afghan homes must stop if the United States expects him to sign a pact that would allow thousands of Americans to stay in the country beyond a 2014 withdrawal deadline.

Cost of War A
[nationalpriorities.org]
According to nationalpriorities.org, we are paying $10.45 million dollars an hour for the war in Afghanistan.

More than 10 MILLION DOLLARS an HOUR, every hour, every day. For that, we get drone strikes that occasionally kill toddlers and women. For that we get soldiers that come back and have to wait for two years for their veterans benefits to kick in. For that we have soldiers with post-traumatic stress syndrome with ruined lives (see 60 Minutes of last Sunday).

We are propping up Karzai’s corrupt regime, only because the alternative seems worse to us: Total control of the country by the Taliban. We are fanning the flames of terrorism. One does not make friends with the father of a toddler when killing the child with a drone. While I don’t know the particulars of this case, it is quite possible that along with the two wounded women, the home of the family was also destroyed. These people don’t have Progressive Insurance to come over and replace their houses when American rockets level them. This unfortunate “incident” as we call it, necessary collateral damage to “keep America safe” may have destroyed a man’s livelihood, taken away his house and all his possessions, killed one of his children and injured two more women. One such incident turns that one father into a devoted terrorist for the rest of his life.

Drones are blunt weapons. Try to kill gnat with a sledge-hammer. Try not to do damage to the thing the gnat sits on. That’s what a drone strike in a civilian neighborhood is like. As long as there are drone strikes, there are civilian casualties, and they hurt the most.

For the $677 billion spent so far on the war in Afghanistan we could have given every citizen in Afghanistan (all 31 million of them) a cash sum of $21,838. Do you think the Taliban would have any chance for a foothold, if we had paid every family of four $88,000 in cash? The average income in Afghanistan is $426 a year, up sharply from $70 in 2004. The $88,000 would be 206 years of income, about what an Afghan family will earn in eight generations. For perspective, eight generations ago, that was the era of Thomas Jefferson in the United States!

From a minute fraction of the money we have spent and continue spending we could have BOUGHT the entire country and the eternal loyalty of its citizens for generations. Yet, here in 2013, we are no further along with the eradication of the Taliban, and its sponsorship of terrorism, than we were in 2004, ten years ago.

Karzai wants us to stop, he wants us out, and he is acting like he is doing us a favor by allowing us to keep forces in the country after 2014. I know he has to say that to stand up for his country, but it is galling nonetheless.

I say we stop the insanity, we withdraw all troops now, and let Karzai deal with his Taliban-infested, corrupt mess of a country himself. We’d have more friends in Afghanistan, and we could start spending $10 million an hour on the education of American children in American schools – and we’d get so much more bang for the buck.

Bush was responsible for starting the war – and with 9/11 one might argue it needed doing. Then Bush kept it going for another seven years. Obama is now responsible for five more years.

All this is done in the name of the American citizen. It’s done in my name, and I don’t like it.

The Folly at Benghazi Exposed by 60 Minutes

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, PoliticalLeave a comment

Over the past year I have complained many times about the endless slamming of the Administration by the conservative pundits because of what happened in Benghazi. Frankly, I thought it was getting trite. Then 60 Minutes did a story on Benghazi last night and it was damning.

Our staff in Benghazi knew they were targets, the military and security experts warned about them being targets, yet no help was provided, after they asked for it, repeatedly, from different directions, many times.

So what was going on?

Our country loves sending Marines or SEALs overseas and show their brawn. We love invading other countries. Getting a credible threat from our favorite villain, Al Qaeda, would normally make us salivate and send in the heavy guns, just for good measure, circle a few drones above, and make a nice show of it.

So why didn’t we send help?

I cannot believe there was any person in the U.S. government that said the following: “Oh, this is not a credible threat. Let’s just leave our guys in Libya exposed. If they have to defend themselves against a few ragheads with guns, they can do that themselves. Send in help? Come on! They don’t need any help!

I cannot believe that anyone in the CIA, the Pentagon or the Administration said that. I cannot believe that Hillary Clinton made such a decision. I cannot believe that Obama made such a decision. It makes no sense. Why would we NOT send help?

The only thing left that could explain it is incompetence. Our government was not enlightened enough to listen to its own people, to assess what was really going on, and to respond with an appropriate measure. Our government was not communicating effectively enough to allow the fateful message to get to a person that was in a position to give the order to send help. Our government, no matter how competent the individual people may be, was not organized enough to act.

That is a scary thought. Our government has nuclear weapons! Think of what it might be capable of doing with those, given faulty information that does not reach the right people and help them come to measured conclusions about a threat.

My only explanation is that our government is incompetent.

And then, it sure looks like it tried to cover it up. The Internet video story makes no sense in the context of what was reported in the 60 Minutes piece yesterday.

I trust the reporting of 60 Minutes much more than I trust the information divulged by our government.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asking for Relief of Restrictions

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, FeelingsLeave a comment

TsarnaevLawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asked a judge Wednesday to lift restrictions placed on him in prison, arguing that the conditions are overly harsh, have left him nearly totally isolated and are impairing their ability to defend him.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers said in a motion filed in court that he has been confined to his cell except for visits from them and has “very limited access” to a small outdoor enclosure.

Too bad, too bad. I am sure the boy is really sorry now for what he did. And now he doesn’t get to play with an iPad.

He should have thought of that before he killed three people and injured 260 more, some gravely.

I am sure there are millions of people in this country that would wish upon him to forcibly have is legs amputated above the knees, in addition to keeping him in a small cell to stew and think about his decisions earlier this year.

I wonder how those people feel that have to get up every morning now for the rest of their lives and strap on prostheses or hop into wheelchairs about his lack of access to the outdoors?

I wonder how those feel who have lost loved-ones at the hands of this insane punk?

I am sure it sucks to be in prison. May many a would-be nutcase think about the consequences of murderous actions before they make them real.

 

Holocaust Memorial in Iowa

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Feelings, Travels2 Comments

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

— Martin Niemöller

Niemöller was a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime. He spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

I found his quote on the Holocaust Memorial in Des Moines, Iowa, this week:

Holocaust1

I did not know this memorial was there. It was just erected this year down the hill from the Iowa State Capitol.

Holocaust2

The memorial consists of a set of engraved steel plates bolted to concrete foundations. There were quotes from a few holocaust survivors who later settled in Iowa. I was impressed by this memorial and the fact that it was just now erected, when fewer and fewer eyewitnesses are still alive. In another decade, almost all people who were alive and victims during the Nazi regime will have passed away. Will we remember then?

Atrocities have a way to pass into history quickly. The eyewitnesses move on and try to forget. Only the nutcases, the deniers, the cynics and the rewriters of history remain to obfuscate the truth. Think about it, nearly 25% of the world population today does not remember 9/11. Either they were not yet born, or they were too young to be affected directly. To them, 9/11 is something that happened in history, like the Civil War is to the rest of us.

Memorials are there so we remember.

Holocaust3

As I went around and read the plates, this picture and inscription gave me pause. Below is a close-up of the same picture.

Holocaust4

It turns out, in 1980 I worked on a huge painting, some 40 x 50 inches big, with this photograph as the motif.

Fear unfin

I never finished the painting, and this photograph is all I have left.

The holocaust memorial in Des Moines touched me in more than one way.

Remembering the Twin Towers

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, History2 Comments
Sept 11 A
Painting done on the evening of Sept 11, 2001

I remember it clearly. At about 6:00pm on September 11, 2001 I needed something to take my mind off things. I put on the Harvest album by Neil Young and started this painting of towers that no longer existed – I guess trying to bring them back. By about 9:00pm the painting was done. It still hangs in my office next to my desk today.

Who Appointed the U.S. to be World Police?

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political1 Comment

It looks like the U.S. and the U.K. are poised to attack Syria unilaterally.

Our sage president drew a line in the sand, perhaps not realizing what he was getting himself into, and now, to save face, he has to attack?

Be careful what you wish for, or rather – what lines in the sand you draw.

I am not condoning the actions of the government in Syria. They are committing atrocities. But I also don’t believe we can attack or invade any country that has inner strife and possibly a civil war. We do not have the resources for this, and we don’t have an unlimited number of young people to send overseas to get killed and maimed. Will we stop messing with countries we have no business with?

We never seem to do it right. We armed and supported Iraq in the 1970s against Iran. Then see what happened. We armed and supported the Afghans against the Russians in the 1980s. Then the Afghans morphed into the Taliban. Then see what happened. Then we helped Egypt….

And while I am ranting, can we stop sending $1.3 billion to Egypt every year?

But war is good for business.

One should never miss the opportunity of a good war.

The Ruling Elite and our Privacy

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Commentaries, Political, Privacy2 Comments

I am starting to think that the ruling elite is actually tacitly grateful to terrorists for existing. They provide a perfect the excuse for the surveillance program currently being exposed.

The NSA has now been accused of capturing up to 70% of all email traffic, and not just metadata, like to and from addresses, time and date stamp, and the subject line, but rather the entire content of the emails.

At the same time, the NSA now admits that it does not know what Snowden actually “stole.”

That fact has me more frightened and outraged than the initial revelation that the surveillance program existed in the first place.

The NSA is not just some evil person, some entity, that does things we don’t like. It’s an entire hierarchy of people and a lot of very sharp techies, people like those that work for the company that I work for. But rather than a few dozen of us, there are thousands of them.

Imagine thousands of smart, young and not so young Snowden-type guys, sitting in large rooms with headphones on and lots of monitors on their desks, with the ability to target any of us, anyone at all, at will, and read the emails that we write to our moms, the text messages we send to our partners about bringing home some milk on the way from work, and the types of things Anthony Weiner is known to send around.

The “NSA” is the collective body of those “guys” that get to do that for a living and get paid for it. Do I really trust them? Does the NSA itself know what they are doing? What they have access to? What criminal activities they may be conducting with the knowledge that they have?

Clearly, the NSA does not know what Snowden took. How could they? Before he blew the whistle, he was just one of thousands of goobers in dark rooms writing queries, collecting data and chasing down “bad guys.” He could have taken anything, just like all the remaining goobers could now take anything they want – that you own.

Before 1995, when I wrote to my mom, I wrote a letter, and nobody had the permission to open that letter. It’s actually still a felony today to take somebody else’s mail.

But now, when I write an email, anybody working for the NSA can read that mail with no consequence.

The possible outcome of this immense power that the government is collecting is utterly frightening. Our gun lobby claims that the American public should be armed so if the government suddenly turned rogue, the public could defend itself. I think the military and gun-based threat is the least of our worries.

If the government ever turned rogue, it could come to doors being kicked down in your house at 4:00am, soldiers hauling you away into some interrogation room, and planting in front of you a stack of tractor-feed paper yards high with all the emails you ever wrote, all the texts you ever sent, all the websites you ever visited.

You say governments don’t turn rogue? That’s what they said in Germany before Hitler did just that. That’s what they said in Russia when they concocted the revolution. That’s what they did in East Germany after the war, not that long ago at all.

Remember, this is our American government, which sends flying robot killing machines into foreign countries to take out suspects, including American citizens, without much regard to the collateral damage of injuring or killing children nearby. Our government is doing that today – with our permission, in our name.

So when you say that governments don’t turn rogue, think again.

Forget the terrorists.

The invasion of our privacy is the real threat.

Abuse of Afghan Wives and Young Boys

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Feelings, Political, Religion, SlaveryLeave a comment
Afghan wife Sahar Gul being taken to hospital. Her in-laws tried her to force her into prostitution
Afghan wife Sahar Gul being taken to hospital. Her in-laws tried her to force her into prostitution

This is a 15-year-old Afghan girl. She was sold as a wife when she was an illiterate 12-year-old. Her in-laws waged a campaign of unimaginable torture. They starved her, chained her in a basement bathroom, beat her, burned her with red-hot metal pipes and pulled her fingernails out, trying to force her into prostitution.

Another problem in Afghanistan and many other Muslim nations is the systematic and institutional sexual abuse of young boys, something that has been going on for thousands of years in those cultures, and something that is going on today, every day.

Remember your own childhood. Remember how vulnerable you were being in this magical world where adults were gods and omnipotent, where you didn’t know the rules and were completely dependent on your parents for nourishment, shelter and emotional well-being. Now imagine that those parents had looked the other way when you were an eight-year-old boy and some uncle came to the house and spent the night in your room, your bed.

As a girl, imagine if your father had sold you to some old guy for a few sheep or goats when you were twelve years old.

Yet, while I sit here safely in the United States, sipping my Negra Modelo beer while typing this post, this is exactly what is being done to thousands of children in the Arab world, right now, right this minute.

I know I cannot change the system of what is religiously acceptable in an Islamic country. I cannot change what other sovereign nations allow to be done to their people, and particularly the weakest members of their society: children – and unfortunately worse – female children.

But I can stand up and state that I do not agree that my country supports the regime that allows this to occur. I despise that our own young men and women are being sent to this country under the pretense of “securing our freedom” only to come back in body bags, in the worst case, or maimed physically, or permanently damaged emotionally due to having had to observe atrocities, and being asked to look the other way.

I can stand up and categorically state that I do not believe that United States taxpayer money should be sent to a country that promotes this type of atrocious abuse.

In God we trust?

The Audacity of Irony: Obama and the NSA

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Commentaries, Political5 Comments

A class action lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Government, including Obama. Click on this link for the class action lawsuit, in its entirety.

Plaintiff, Larry Klayman, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor, and Plaintiffs Charles and Mary Ann Strange (collectively “Plaintiffs”) bring this action on their own behalf and on behalf of a class of persons defined below. Plaintiffs hereby sue Barack Hussein Obama, Eric Holder, Keith B. Alexander, Lowell McAdam, Roger Vinson, Verizon Communications, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the National Security Agency (“NSA”), (collectively “Defendants”), in their personal and official capacities, for violating Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, Plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process rights, as well as certain common law claims, for directly and proximately causing Plaintiffs mental and physical pain and suffering.

I voted for Obama two times. He has now lost my trust. Given the information I have now, if I were in Congress and I’d have to vote to impeach the president today, I WOULD. But this can’t happen, because the wiretapping is probably not even illegal – which has me deeply concerned.

The scope, size, audacity and illegality of what went on here is beyond Orwellian. Nixon’s crimes appear like school-boy pranks in comparison.

Whether Obama knows what he is doing, whether he knew what the NSA was doing on behalf of “the American people,” it does not matter. Obama is the president and the buck stops there. Our government appears to have turned rogue, and it must be stopped.

To top this off, the government is actually pursuing criminal actions against the whistle blowers. This is the audacity of irony.

Unfortunately, this wiretapping is probably not illegal, and nothing will change.

1984.

Costs of War

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Feelings, PoliticalLeave a comment

Costs of War

The tally of all of the Iraq war’s dead — including soldiers, militants, police, contractors, journalists, humanitarian workers and civilians — shows that at least 330,000 people have died due to direct war violence.

Bush wanted this war. If Bush and cronies had not started the Iraq war, some of these 330,000 people would not be dead now. Why do I care? Because I could be one of them. I am just lucky I am not, so I get to sit here and write about it. Otherwise, I’d just be — dead.

Today Bush, Cheney and Rove sit in interviews, look straight into the camera and say “it was the right thing to do.” I would like to see Rice or Powell look into the camera and say the same thing. I don’t think I’ll ever see that, because I don’t believe they believe it themselves, and they now know they were but puppets back in 2003 and they are ashamed about it.

Here is a great site with well-researched facts and resources that talks about – well – the costs of war, that our leaders were so fast to commit to and are now so quick to brush aside, all in the name of the American people.

All In Our Name.

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