Marc Perkel Rantz

Kerry should not have pulled the McCain ads

This cartoon was true 4 years ago and it's still true today.

I think Kerry should not have pulled the McCain ads exposing McCain as a liar for Bush. McCain want to have it both ways - to compain about what Bush did to him - and to endorse a man who McCain clearly hates so that some day he might get a shot at president. It might be a different stort if McCain weren'ty actively involved in this election - but he is. So - I hope MoveOn picks up those spots and runs them. McCain is as dishonorable as the Swift Boat Vets who are lying about Kerry's record. McCain is the very thing he hates.

Bush Wears Ribbon he didn't Earn

Not just a deserter - now he's an imposter! But will you see this in the Republican Controlled news? No! They are busy asking if Kerry won his metals. You don't see the media asking where Bush was when he was supposed to be serving in the National Guard.

It's about the Future - not the Past

Letter to the Editor

We have an election coming up that will determine the future of America. I wish the media would shift the focus of the election coverage to where America is going rather than rehashing Vietnam again. I call on the media to reality test the positions of the candidates and try to talk about where we are going rather than where we have been. Vietnam is history. We should be talking about Iraq and what it's going to take to resolve it.

Marine admits role in prisoner murder

Torture - slaughter - murder - rape - America in denial. They beat prisioners to death and turture them to death and Americans are such cowards that we can't admit the truth of what happened. For murder - this guy gets off with a fine and reduction in rank. Look at the language in this article and ask yourself if someone else did this to an American would we look at it the same way.

Iraqi's beating called an act of retribution
By Alex Roth
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 26, 2004

CAMP PENDLETON – A Marine who admitted spray-painting "Terror Dome" on a jail for Iraqi prisoners testified yesterday that he and Sgt. Gary Pittman gave a fierce beating to a hooded inmate who later died at the lockup.

Pfc. William Roy, the star prosecution witness in Pittman's court martial, also said he and Pittman beat up another Iraqi inmate for reasons of pure retribution. The two decided to "put some pain on him," Roy testified.

On cross-examination, one of Pittman's lawyers suggested that Roy himself may have caused the injuries that killed inmate Nagem Sadoon Hatab, 52, who was found dead June 6, 2003 at the Camp Whitehorse jail near the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.

Defense lawyer John Tranberg noted that Roy, a reservist who works as a county jail guard in Troy, N.Y., originally faced eight criminal charges that were dropped when he agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Instead of facing court-martial, a possible criminal conviction and potential prison time, Roy, 35, received a fine and reduction in rank from lance corporal to private first class.

Pittman, 40, a reservist employed as a New York federal prison guard, faces up to two years in a military prison if convicted of assault and dereliction of duty.

Both men are members of the 2nd battalion, 25th Marines, a New York-based unit that established the jail at Camp Whitehorse shortly after deploying to Iraq in the spring of 2003.

Many of the jail's prisoners were violent, and temperatures reached 125 degrees during the day and hovered in the 90s even at night.

In his testimony yesterday, Roy described Hatab as an inmate with an attitude problem who resisted attempts to strip-search him and balked when ordered to stand for 50 minutes of the hour.

The so-called 50/10 policy, Roy said, was ordered by a special Marine intelligence unit to soften up prisoners for questioning.

Roy said he assaulted Hatab several times because he refused to stand.

Compliance techniques, Roy said, included applying force to various pressure points, a method he and his other correctional officers in New York used "to get protesters or unresponsive people to rise to their feet."

Prosecutors have suggested that Hatab was singled out for harsh treatment because he was suspected of involvement in the ambush of Army Private Jessica Lynch's convoy.

Roy said he and Pittman began beating Hatab in the early-morning hours of June 4, when Hatab refused to stand and later became entangled in some razor wire inside his cell.

At one point Pittman delivered a kick to Hatab's chest that sent the handcuffed, hooded prisoner tumbling backward to the ground, according to Roy.

Roy also admitted grabbing Hatab by the throat several hours later and commanding the inmate "to do what we tell him to do."

"We were aggravated with him, sir," Roy told the prosecutor, Maj. Leon Francis. "He wasn't cooperating."

Hatab was found dead in a fetal position in an outdoor holding pen less than two days later. An autopsy noted several broken ribs and concluded that a broken bone in his throat caused him to asphyxiate. Pittman's lawyers have questioned the autopsy's accuracy.

In his testimony, Roy admitted that he and another Marine spray-painted "2/25 Terror Dome" on an outside entrance to the jail more than a month before Hatab's arrival. When questioned about the incident by the prosecutor yesterday, Roy said they also painted a smiley face on the other side of the building.

He testified that he, Pittman and a third Marine beat a sheik who was brought into the jail June 5. They did so, Roy said, because the sheik had promised to surrender peacefully but his people resisted when Marines tried to arrest him.

"Pretty much it was retribution for his people putting up a fight against our people," Roy testified.

Roy said it was Pittman, his immediate superior, who decided to give the sheik "the full effect."

"At that time I felt it was part of what was expected of us," Roy said.

Roy's testimony is scheduled to continue today. Two other Marines face hearings next month in the case.

Swift Boats for Truth lies exposed

This New York Times Article exposes the lies of the swift boats for truth organization as well as the ties to the Bust administration.

I don't know where people get this false idea that just because someone was in the millitary that they are somehow more honest than those who weren't. For example - Bob Dole - wounded in World War II has zero integrity. He was so sold out to tobacco that he wouldn't even say that smoking was bad for you when directly asked the question. He said that some people think milk is bad for you.

John McCain - another example of a POW in Veitnam who has sold his soul to the Republican Party. Bush did the same thing to McCain - and in this video McCain says what he really thinks about Buish. But now McCain who soul has been sold will lie and support the man he hates at the expense of the American people.

And then there's Abu Ghraib Prison where our "finest" have acted just like Hitler and are laughing about it. And the military is busy covering up the fact that everyone in the chain of command knew about it and approved it all the way to Bush.

So - I'm not going to listen to this "I'm a war hero and I tell the truth" crap. Not going to live the lie.

Anger as Bush bids to exploit Olympic games

The Guardian

President George Bush stood accused of appropriating the Olympic movement for political means last night, amid reports he was planning to visit Athens later this week to watch some sporting events, including a potential gold-medal winning bid by the Iraqi football team.

According to unconfirmed reports in the US, the White House is examining the logistical and security implications of Mr Bush travelling to the Greek capital in time for Saturday's football final. Iraq, whose progress to the semi-finals of the tournament has been one of the games' most captivating stories, will meet Paraguay tomorrow night for a possible place in the finals.

The Greek foreign ministry confirmed last night that the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, will be in Athens for the closing ceremony.

But it is the potential presidential visit to the games that will fuel a dispute between the election campaign of Mr Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, and the US Olympic Committee over an advert which links Iraq's and Afghanistan's participation in the games with the US administration's "war on terror".

The advert, which has been broadcast in the US for the past week, begins with footage from the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, during which 13 Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists, and continues with a narrator saying: "Freedom is spreading through the world like a sunrise. And this Olympics there will be two more free nations and two less terrorist regimes."

As the flags of Afghanistan and Iraq flutter in the breeze, it concludes: "With strength, resolve and courage, democracy will triumph over terror and hope will defeat hatred."

Under American copyright law, only the US Olympic Com mittee has the right to use the Olympic insignia, images and trademarks for marketing purposes.

Initially, the committee reportedly called for the advert to be withdrawn, but its spokesman retreated from that last night.

"We have contacted the president's election campaign team and asked them to forward us a copy of the advert. Once we have reviewed it and determined the type and extent of the use of the Olympic name, we will decide how to progress," a spokesman, Darryl Seibel, said.

The committee might want to avoid a confrontation with Mr Bush, but it appears that the objects of his affections have no such qualms.

To the embarrassment of their media handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi football team have reacted furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Mr Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House.

The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told Sports Illustrated magazine: "My problem is not with the American people. They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?"

One of the team's midfield players, Ahmad Manajid, accused Mr Bush of "slaughtering" Iraqi men and women. "How will he meet his God having slaughtered so many? I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that make them a terrorist?" he said.

Mark Clark, the spokesman for the Iraqi Olympic squad in Athens, accused journalists of taking advantage of the players. "They are not very sophisticated politically. Whoever posed these questions knew the answers would be negative. It is possible something was lost in translation. The players are entitled to their opinions but we are disappointed," he said.

Mr Bush, not hitherto known as a keen football fan, has made repeated references to the performances of the Iraqi football team in his campaign speeches.

After its unexpected 4-2 victory over Portugal, he told a crowd in Oregon that the fact the team was in Athens was fantastic, adding: "It wouldn't have been free if the United States hadn't acted."

Sad Day for Working People

Letter to the Editor

There are two kinds of people in the world, the corporate owners - and the slaves who work for them. Starting Monday the slaves have to work harder and longer for less money because under new federal regulations - we lose our overtime pay. People work hard and need rest, time to spend with our families or relaxing in front of the tube. It used to be that if we had to work extra - then at least we would get time and a half for it. Now that is gone.

The extra pay also had the advantage of creating new jobs. Because companies didn't want to pay a lot of extra money - they would hire more help. But now they don't have to. They can just work the slaves twice as long. We need to move out from under the thumbs of our corporate oppressors who own the Whitehouse and take back the country for working people. Register to vote - and let the revolution begin.