VIDEO (GRAPHIC): Different (Ishaqi)'Iraq massacre' tape emerges (BBC News)

[redacted]

The BBC has obtained disturbing pictures of the aftermath of an alleged massacre of 11 Iraqis by American troops.

Iraqi police have accused US soldiers of killing the people in Ishaqi, north of Baghdad. John Simpson reports from Baghdad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5030000/newsid_5039500/nb_wm_5039548.stm

A longer version is the top story on BBC News at Ten, followed by a second report from Washington:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/news_ost/nb/wm/video/news10_nb.asx

[fooj]

1. OMG! The children...

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[redacted]

3. BBC can't show closeups. This is awful.

[Julius Civitatus]

2. Remember, this is the Ishaqi massacre, different from the Haditha massacre

Truly depressing.

:(

[redacted]

6. Thank for clarifying; I'm sorry, but I had to post this.

[Julius Civitatus]

13. Makes you wonder how many more massacres will surface

This is truly horrible.

[mikelgb]

19. yes

and all part of the Iraq massacre.

[malaise]

4. Drip, drip, drip

It's Bush policy -wake up. Have you forgotten Fallujah already -it is policy

[tridim]

5. That makes me want to throw up

Those people were killed in my name.

Is there a direct quote where the Army said, "It's one of three or four investigations"? I think we deserve the exact number, not "Oh, three or four".

[Stinky The Clown]

16. They weren't killed in your name

America is a victim of identity theft.

And we *know* who their thieves are.

[Bucky]

36. Just killed with your tax dollars.

In courts of law, the jury doesn't ask of the accused actually knew what they were doing is wrong. The jury only needs to determine that the accused had the capacity to know right from wrong. This isn't identify theft. It's wilful negligence. And America is guilty as hell.

[bennywhale]

39. People need to start working out what % of their

tax is going on the war (massacre) and then refuse to pay it. the court cases, if there were enough would make a difference. A guy in the UK did this, and the judge, even though he fined him and forced him to pay, said he understood his refusal on moral grounds etc. At least it made news. That is the key keep the pressure up.

This is turing into a nightmare. Sorry, more of a nightmare.

Are they actually deliberately increasing terrorism to keep this war endless to keep the empire going and going and the oil flowing?

Is this the shape of the 21st Century? An endless war instigated by America?

[merh]

7. Not.In.My.Name.

:cry:

God forgive us.

[uppityperson]

8. bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit "won't allow ethical violations" bulls

6 months olds, pregnant women on the way to the hospital, the Iraqi/USA ambassador's cousin, etc etcetcetcetc.

what the fuck, why the hell, damn damn damn

[dipsydoodle]

9. Has it been mentioned on any

USA news channels yet ? I think they would normally cross refer to the BBC as being the source.

[redacted]

14. I haven't seen it on U.S. media yet--that's why I watch BBC.

[IndyOp]

10. "Children of Abraham" a flash presentation of events at Ishaqi (Abu Sifa)

WARNING! Photos that the BBC said were too graphic to show are IN this Flash presentation:
Ishaqi - Abu Sifa - Children of Abraham - Death in the Desert

Here is a description of several of the photos:

We know from photographic evidence that the corpses of two men, four shrouded figures (women, according to the villagers), and five children - all of them apparently under the age of five, one as young as seven months, were pulled from the rubble of the house and laid out for burial beneath the bright, blank desert sky.

We know that the U.S.-backed Iraqi police said that an autopsy performed on the bodies found that "all the victims had gunshot wounds to the head." We know that the U.S.-backed Iraqi police said they found "spent American-issue cartridges in the rubble."

We know that two Iraqi police officials, Major Ali Ahmed and Colonel Farouq Hussein - both employed by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government - told Reuteres that the 11 occupants of the house, including the five children, had been bound and shot in the head before the house was blown up.

We know from the photographs that one child, the youngest, the baby, has a graping wound in his forehead. We can see that one other child, a girl with a pink ribbon in her hair, is lying on her side and has blood oozing from the back of her head. The faces of the other children are turned upwards toward the sun; if they were shot, they were shot in the back of the head and their wounds are not evident. But we can see that their bodies, though covered with dust from the rubble are otherwise whole; they were evidently not crushed in the collapse of the house. They died in some other fashion.

We know from the photographs that two of the children - two girls, still in their pajamas - are lying with their dead eyes open. We can see that the light and tenderness that animate the eyes of every young child have vanished; nothing remains but the brute start of nothingness into nothingness. We can see that the other three children have their eyes closed; two are limp, but the baby has one stiffened arm raised to his cheek, as if trying to ward off the blow that gashed and pulped his face so terribly.

May God have mercy on our souls.

Please people. The problem isn't Haditha. The problem isn't Abu Sifa. The problem isn't Abu Ghraib. The problem isn't Iraq.

THE PROBLEM IS ONGOING USE of the US Military for control of markets and resources.

Real Shock & Awe: After 15 Years War, Sanctions 1,000,000 Iraqis Dead
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/IndyOp/4

Killing Hope: Over 250 Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II
http://www.killinghope.org/

Google Video:
What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy - The War Against the Third World
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3453261789658676035&pl=true

[northamericancitizen]

17. I hear you IndyOp. eom

[IndyOp]

21. Thx. You are one of the very few who do hear me.

Everyone else reads posts like the one you just read and they go right for "F*ck Bush!" and "THIS illegal war is a horror!" -- hardly anyone notes the fact that I am working hard to illustrate an ONGOING PATTERN:

From William Blum's website:

Killing Hope - Over 250 Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
http://www.killinghope.com

If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out ... invasions ... bombings ... overthrowing governments ... suppressing movements for social change ... assassinating political leaders ... perverting elections ... manipulating labor unions ...manufacturing "news" ... death squads ...torture ... biological warfare ...depleted uranium ... drug trafficking ...mercenaries ...

It's not a pretty picture.
It is enough to give imperialism a bad name.

Read the full details in:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II. by William Blum

"Far and away the best book on the topic." Noam Chomsky


Table of Contents
Introduction
1. China - 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Tse-tung just paranoid?
2. Italy - 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
3. Greece - 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
4. The Philippines - 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
5. Korea - 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
6. Albania - 1949-1953: The proper English spy
7. Eastern Europe - 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
8. Germany - 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
9. Iran - 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
10. Guatemala - 1953-1954: While the world watched
11. Costa Rica - Mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally - Part 1
12. Syria - 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
13. Middle East - 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
14. Indonesia - 1957-1958: War and pornography
15. Western Europe - 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
16. British Guiana - 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
17. Soviet Union - Late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
18. Italy - 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno-fascism
19. Vietnam - 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
20. Cambodia - 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
21. Laos - 1957-1973: L'Armée Clandestine
22. Haiti - 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
23. Guatemala - 1960: One good coup deserves another
24. France/Algeria - 1960s: L'état, c'est la CIA
25. Ecuador - 1960-1963: A text book of dirty tricks
26. The Congo - 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
27. Brazil - 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
28. Peru - 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
29. Dominican Republic - 1960-1966: Saving democracy by getting rid of democracy
30. Cuba - 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
31. Indonesia - 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno ... and 500,000 others
East Timor - 1975: And 200,000 more
32. Ghana - 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
33. Uruguay - 1964-1970: Torture -- as American as apple pie
34. Chile - 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
35. Greece - 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said
the President of the United States
36. Bolivia - 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'etat
37. Guatemala - 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
38. Costa Rica - 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally -- Part 2
39. Iraq - 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
40. Australia - 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
41. Angola - 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
42. Zaire - 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
43. Jamaica - 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
44. Seychelles - 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
45. Grenada - 1979-1984: Lying -- one of the few growth industries in Washington
46. Morocco - 1983: A video nasty
47. Suriname - 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
48. Libya - 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
49. Nicaragua - 1981-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
50. Panama - 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
51. Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching communists what democracy is all about
52. Iraq - 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
53. Afghanistan - 1979-1992: America's Jihad
54. El Salvador - 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
55. Haiti - 1986-1994: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?
56. The American Empire - 1992 to present

Appendix I: This is How the Money Goes Round
Appendix II: Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-1945
Appendix III: U. S. Government Assassination Plots

WAKE UP PEOPLE! It is time to end the US Holocaust!

[malaise]

22. Yep there is history here

Some of us know; others refuse to accept the facts. The US govt has long been a killing machine. Now they no longer pretend to be covert.

Add

[IndyOp]

23. To quote THE MAN:

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.”

Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

[malaise]

29. My first reading of

What to a slave is the 4th July shattered all my illusions. I was a teenager.
http://douglassarchives.org/doug_a10.htm

I've lived through some of the covert interference and cannot be fooled. It's just way more open and brazen these days but the timeline shows the quilt of violence rather well. Still the success of the propaganda is commendable for many people worldwide actually believed the myths. That they can still use the words freedom and democracy would be comical if so many millions hadn't been slaughtered to perpetuate those myths.

The beauty and karma meted out by nature is all that keeps me going. Everything else is a fugging lie. I leave Bush to nature.

Edit -gr.

[IndyOp]

30. I am always impressed how people with clear spiritual anchors...

are the ones who are most able to see the truth of the world.

Thank you for witnessing for the great truths: The beauty and karma meted out by nature. The horrors of this world, of ourselves.

:hug:

[malaise]

33. I chose nature over gods

early in life and yes it facilitates clarity. Many, many human beings are evil.

[IndyOp]

35. I am reading a book by M. Scott Peck on the nature of evil -

"The People of the Lie." The premise is that people who lie to themselves to convince themselves that they are solely good (and have no capacity for evil) are the ones who become capable of ever-increasing evil actions because they do not recognize their evil actions as evil.

Our society encourages us to refuse to accept our 'shadow side' -- and in so doing we allow real evil. Our nation refuses to see the 'evil' in it's actions and therefore commits real evil in the world.

My fav story from an alternate perspective - one that encourages recognizing the presence of the dark side - is the Native American legend about a boy talking with his grandfather. The grandfather says that he has a great battle inside him between two wolves, one good and one evil. In fact, everyone has the two wolves inside. The grandson asks which wolf will win. The grandfather replies, "The one I feed."

I do truly believe that we all have the capacity for evil and the closer we come to accepting this and staying 'on guard' the more likely we are to feed the good wolf and starve the bad one.

A dramatic example of the power of accepting 'evil' -> A Tibetan monk who had been held captive and tortured by the Chinese for many years confessed that he had nearly lost his way -- that sometimes during captivity, during the torture -- he was unable to feel compassion for his Chinese captors.

The more sensitized I am to recognizing my behaviors, thoughts, emotions as being possibly evil (lacking in compassion) the closer I can come to the goal of true compassion.

The truly evil people (and organizations) in our world are the ones who most believe they are solely good.

:-)

[malaise]

47. That's profound

The truly evil people (and organizations) in our world are the ones who most believe they are solely good.

[bennywhale]

40. The actual concept 'Democracy' has now been so stained

by this government, i fear for its future. It will become synonymous with violence, invasion, occupation, oppression and murder.

They have actual stolen 'democracy' and 'freedom' from the world by their obscene perversion of it. I fucking hate them

[sproutster]

18. THIS IS THE ONE WE SAW THE PICTURES OF!!

This is the attack we saw the pictures of.. US said 2 children and you could see 4 dead children under the caption!!

F' Bush! F' The ILLEGAL WAR!

[lonestarnot]

31. Everyone who voted for bushitler that hasn't backed off him should have

to view this video in all its glory.

[CanSocDem]

38. The problem...

"THE PROBLEM IS ONGOING USE of the US Military for control of markets and resources."





Well said...!!

[Canuckistanian]

11. "this is one of 3 or 4 incidents that are being investigated"

Dear God, there are more.

[bennywhale]

41. 'Dear God there are more' This has been going on since day one

Constant little mentions of people dead at checkpoints, farmers killed, protestords killed, wedding parties attacked and massacred, indiscriminate firing and murder following IED's. This isn't the exception. This is Iraq

[imax2268]

12. I just don't know what to say...

this is getting out of hand...

[DearAbby]

15. Oh my God

how much more can we take? I am so ashamed. This is what it has reduced to. It figures, a war based on lies and greed, begates torture and murder=war crimes.

They have successfully led this country down the path of shame.

There is a point, even with all the soap and water in the world, the blood will not wash off.

STOP THIS WAR!

[mod mom]

20. They have over stressed our military w multiple tours. Time for Jenna +

Barbara to enlist to provide some relief.

[redacted]

27. Or how about the dropout who just got into Harvard Business School

for acting as Bush's assistant, and dating one of his kids? Why doesn't he go over there and fight? Too rich and well-bred for combat duty, like the rest of them at the top of this administration?

[lonestarnot]

32. How bout that one that cheated his way through Yale?

[WestSeattle2]

24. The ONLY difference between these carnages

and carnages that have occurred in every war ever fought, is that now we have videotape evidence. For those that have relatives who fought in WWII, ask them if they ever witnessed "questionable" war activities. Many, many, many will answer in the affirmative. Same with Korean vets, and everyone knows the Vietnam atrocities.

We're talking teen-aged to early 20's males, who exercise poor judgement daily, under normal conditions stateside. They have high testosterone, are inexperienced, scared shitless, and they'll almost always resort to violence when their life experience doesn't provide them any other answer, or relief, to stressful situations. It's a combination that has disaster written all over it. And it is not just American kids. Every nation on earth that has ever fought a war, has stains on it just like this.

For those of us with a few lines on our faces, we knew what to expect before the first bomb dropped. As more and more people begin to realize that these murders take place in every war, by every nation, (there are no saints in war....really), hopefully there will be more voices raised in opposition to future presidents who claim war is the only alternative.

No, war is not the only alternative. Perhaps if the White House had listened to someone, anyone, who had actually fought a war, instead of spineless neo-cons and our "I had other priorties" vice president, we could have avoided this quagmire.

Since we cannot turn back time, expect more and more of these stories to come to light. It will not end until the war does.

[Bouncy Ball]

26. What a great post.

Exactly. And I would add, the longer a war goes on, the higher likelihood of these atrocities happening. And the more of them will happen. That doesn't mean SHORT wars are ok, but that's another factor to consider.

[bennywhale]

43. I agree to a certain extent , but you must recognise that this

problem, out of democratic countries, is particularly indicitave of the US. Its the deluded culture of American Uniqueness the view of the unquestionable superiority of the country, the culture, the people.

This culture pervades the military as well as much of society. This deluded view of the superior uniqueness of the American culture leads directly to massacres such as these. older developed democratic nations have a different view of other cultures. This is a particular problem (referring to democratic countries) for America in the 20th and 21st Century.

there were even refusals by many allied troops to serve alongside the Americans in WW2 because of the gung-ho, life is cheap attitude. the other nations appeared and appear to hold the sanctity of a foreign human life above that of America.

Its cultural and no-one appears to have woken up it yet. "the best God Damn country on Earth" is much of the attitude. That attitude is ridiculous for any nation. And the troops believe they are in the best god damn army in the world, when in fact it is only the richest. in terms of professionalism it is way down in comparison to other countries.

Its sad sad sad

[rman]

46. also, we're talking soldiers following orders.

[Bouncy Ball]

25. This is just one of the many reasons (but one of the major ones)

that people like myself are anti-war, except in VERY CLEAR CASES of SELF-DEFENSE. This was so far from that criteria, it's shameful. This was a war of choice, as we all know.

In war, nasty things are done. There are no excuses. But things are done under the cover of night and away from cameras and under the stress of battle and the siren call of the dehumanization of the people you are surrounded by.

See: Vietnam.

Again, just one reason why I was so against this in the first place. Not in my name. And not in my child's name. This war is and was and has been a crime from the beginning. A CRIME.

[WestSeattle2]

28. I can't possibly agree more....

[Strathos]

34. How damaging is this?

Can this be grounds for an investigation and maybe even a hault to operations in Iraq?

This can not just go away without some retribution.

I feel completely helpless and honestly scared to death at what our government is capable of.

[wordpix2]

37. I can't take anymore of this. Disgusting war & BushCheneyRummyRice need

to be hauled up to the Hague for war crimes. And anyone else who pushed the lying "intel."

[mortlefaucheur]

42. The Nazis were Drafted. MurKKKans "volunteer". n/t

[ShortnFiery]

45. But "MurKKan Cannon Fodder" is becoming scarce ...

The time to "pay the piper" will be when Rummy needs to kick-in the DRAFT. When Earl and May Ella's kids from the deep south will be taken against their will. THEN we will finally have THE PEOPLE show their true outrage. An outrage, like during The Vietnam War, will NOT be able to be glossed over by the Main Stream Corporate Media. :grr: :(

[Blue_Tires]

44. k+r

[lebkuchen]

48. Can it be argued that this is the result of standard rules of engagement?

I hadn't bargained on this when I paid 2005's taxes. Makes me want to withhold 2006's.