First County-wide Broward Election Reform Coalition Meeting

You are invited to attend
   First County-wide Broward Election Reform Coalition Meeting!
    
   “Achieving Election Reform in Broward County!”
    
   January, 18, 2006
   7-9:30 PM
   Leonard Weisinger Community Center
   6199 N.W. 10th St., Margate, FL 33063
   Phone: 954-972-6458
    
   Whereas the Declaration of Independence refers to the Consent of the Governed as

 the self-evident truth from which Government derives "just Power";
    
   When elections are conducted under conditions that prevent conclusive outcomes, the

Consent of the Governed is not being sought. Absent this self-evident source of

legitimacy, such Consent is not to be assumed or taken for granted.

    
   We are excited to have as our first Keynote Speaker Clint Curtis!

  

 Wonderful Whistleblower Clint has an intimate knowledge of Vote Fraud. He will

travel Far and Wide to whoever will listen with an open mind!  Clint has testified before

Congressional Commissions and is well known for his encounters with FL Congressman

 Feeney who asked him to write a Computer Program to Rig the Elections on Touch

Screen Voting Machines in South Florida.   Election Reform in Broward County is way

overdue! We are the sleeping giant!

 

What Can We Do???    How Do We Want to Vote???   Will My Vote Count???

   What’s Happening in Broward County?

 

THE BROWARD ELECTION REFORM COALITION is a Nonpartisan Broward

County think-tank, watchdog and action group with the primary goal of replacing the

 Current Paperless Voting Technology with Voter-verified Paper Ballots, handcounted

at the precinct level, reconciled with machine counts and used as the official election

result.  We will make recommendations to the Supervisor of Elections and County

Commissioners in Voting Technology, Election Policy and Practices.. We will keep our

elected officials honest, accountable, transparent and working in the public interest  We

will help influence Voter Verified Paper Ballot Legislation and participate and take a

lead in national and statewide election reform actions. The Broward Election Reform

Coalition is for all the Broward County Voting Rights Activists to have a central

 group to join together, brainstorm and unite! 

 

 Join our nonpartisan alliance and encourage your friends of all political parties to

attend!

 

   Please join our Broward Election Reform Newsgroup at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/

   For More Info Contact: Ellen H. Brodsky, Broward

 Verified Voting, ehbrod@yahoo.com, 954-973-2819

  For Directions: 

 http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&cat=&address=6199+N.W.+10th+St.&city=Margate&state=FL&zipcode=+33063

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Did you know....
1.  80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:  Diebold and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2.  There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3.  The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4.  The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S.  He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines. http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7.  Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8.  ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9.  Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindexhtml

10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11.  Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12.  Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13.  Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold.  Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14.  Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years. http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15.  None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16.  California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad.  Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!  (See the movie here:  http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.) http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17.  30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18.  All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
href="http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html">
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19.  The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20.  Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation. http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/ 
 

 

How many people have died in Iraq since 2003?

How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?

30,000? No. 100,000? No.

By ANDREW COCKBURN

01/09/06 "Counterpunch" -- -- President Bush's off-hand summation last month of the number of Iraqis who have so far died as a result of our invasion and occupation as "30,000, more or less" was quite certainly an under-estimate. The true number is probably hitting around 180,000 by now, with a possibility, as we shall see, that it has reached as high as half a million.

But even Bush's number was too much for his handlers to allow. Almost as soon as he finished speaking, they hastened to downplay the presidential figure as "unofficial", plucked by the commander in chief from "public estimates". Such calculations have been discouraged ever since the oafish General Tommy Franks infamously announced at the time of the invasion: "We don't do body counts". In December 2004, an effort by the Iraqi Ministry of Health to quantify ongoing mortality on the basis of emergency room admissions was halted by direct order of the occupying power.

In fact, the President may have been subconsciously quoting figures published by iraqbodycount.org, a British group that diligently tabulates published press reports of combat-related killings in Iraq. Due to IBC's policy of posting minimum and maximum figures, currently standing at 27787 and 31317, their numbers carry a misleading air of scientific precision. As the group itself readily concedes, the estimate must be incomplete, since it omits unreported deaths.

There is however another and more reliable method for estimating figures such as these: nationwide random sampling. No one doubts that, if the sample is truly random, and the consequent data correctly calculated, the sampled results reflect the national figures within the states accuracy. That, after all, is how market researchers assess public opinion on everything from politicians to breakfast cereals. Epidemiologists use it to chart the impact of epidemics. In 2000 an epidemiological team led by Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health used random sampling to calculate the death toll from combat and consequent disease and starvation in the ongoing Congolese civil war at 1.7 million. This figure prompted shocked headlines and immediate action by the UN Security Council. No one questioned the methodology.

In September 2004, Roberts led a similar team that researched death rates, using the same techniques, in Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion. Making "conservative assumptions" they concluded that "about 100,000 excess deaths" (in fact 98,000) among men, women, and children had occurred in just under eighteen months. Violent deaths alone had soared twentyfold. But, as in most wars, the bulk of the carnage was due to the indirect effects of the invasion, notably the breakdown of the Iraqi health system. Thus, though many commentators contrasted the iarqbodycount and Johns Hopkins figures, they are not comparable. The bodycounters were simply recording, or at least attempting to record, deaths from combat violence, while the medical specialists were attempting something far more complete, an accounting of the full death toll wrought by the devastation of the US invasion and occupation.

Unlike the respectful applause granted the Congolese study, this one, published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, generated a hail of abusive criticism. The general outrage may have been prompted by the unsettling possibility that Iraq's liberators had already killed a third as many Iraqis as the reported 300,000 murdered by Saddam Hussein in his decades of tyranny. Some of the attacks were self-evidently absurd. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman, for example, queried the survey because it "appeared to be based on an extrapolation technique rather than a detailed body count", as if Blair had never made a political decision based on a poll. Others chose to compare apples with oranges by mixing up nationwide Saddam-era government statistics with individual cluster survey results in order to cast doubt on the latter.

Some questioned whether the sample was distorted by unrepresentative hot spots such as Fallujah. In fact, the amazingly dedicated and courageous Iraqi doctors who actually gathered the data visited 33 "clusters" selected on an entirely random basis across the length and breadth of Iraq. In each of these clusters the teams conducted interviews in 30 households, again selected by rigorously random means. As it happened, Fallujah was one of the clusters thrown up by this process. Strictly speaking, the team should have included the data from that embattled city in their final result - random is random after all -- which would have given an overall post-invasion excess death figure of no less than 268,000. Nevertheless, erring on the side of caution, they eliminated Fallujah from their sample.

For such dedication to scholarly integrity, Roberts and his colleagues had to endure the flatulent ignorance of Michael E. O'Hanlon, sage of the Brookings Institute, who told the New York Times that the self-evidently deficient Iraqbodycount estimate was "certainly a more serious work than the Lancet report".

No point in the study attracted more confident assaults by ersatz statisticians than the study's passing mention of a 95 per cent "confidence interval" for the overall death toll of between 194,000 and 8,000. This did not mean, as asserted by commentators who ought to have known better, that the true figure lay anywhere between those numbers and that the 98,000 number was produced merely by splitting the difference. In fact, the 98,000 figure represents the best estimate drawn from the data. The high and low numbers represented the spread, known to statisticians as "the confidence interval", within which it is 95 per cent certain the true number will be found. Had the published study (which was intensively peer reviewed) cited the 80 per cent confidence interval also calculated by the team - a statistically respectable option -- then the spread would have been between 152,000 and 44,000.

Seeking further elucidation on the mathematical tools available to reveal the hidden miseries of today's Iraq, I turned to CounterPunch's consultant statistician, Pierre Sprey. He reviewed not only the Iraq study as published in the Lancet, but also the raw data collected in the household survey and kindly forwarded me by Dr. Roberts.

 

"I have the highest respect for the rigor of the sampling method used and the meticulous and courageous collection of the data. I'm certainly not criticizing in any way Robert's data or the importance of the results. But they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble had they discarded the straitjacket of Gaussian distribution in favor of a more practical statistical approach", says Sprey. "As with all such studies, the key question is that of 'scatter' i.e. the random spread in data between each cluster sampled. So cluster A might have a ratio of twice as many deaths after the invasion as before, while cluster B might experience only two thirds as many. The academically conventional approach is to assume that scatter follows the bell shaped curve, otherwise known as 'normal distribution,' popularized by Carl Gauss in the early 19th century. This is a formula dictating that the most frequent occurrence of data will be close to the mean, or center, and that frequency of occurrence will fall off smoothly and symmetrically as data scatters further and further from the mean - following the curve of a bell shaped mountain as you move from the center of the data.

"Generations of statisticians have had it beaten in to their skulls that any data that scatters does so according to the iron dictates of the bell shaped curve. The truth is that in no case has a sizable body of naturally occurring data ever been proven to follow the curve". (A $200,000 prize offered in the 1920s for anyone who could provide rigorous evidence of a natural occurrence of the curve remains unclaimed.)

"Slavish adherence to this formula obscures information of great value. The true shape of the data scatter almost invariably contains insights of great physical or, in this case medical importance. In particular it very frequently grossly exaggerates the true scatter of the data. Why? Simply because the mathematics of making the data fit the bell curve inexorably leads one to placing huge emphasis on isolated extreme 'outliers' of the data.

"For example if the average cluster had ten deaths and most clusters had 8 to 12 deaths, but some had 0 or 20, the Gaussian math would force you to weight the importance of those rare points like 0 or 20 (i.e. 'outliers') by the square of their distance from the center, or average. So a point at 20 would have a weight of 100 (20 minus 10 squared) while a point of 11 would have a weight of 1 (11 minus 10 squared.)

"This approach has inherently pernicious effects. Suppose for example one is studying survival rates of plant- destroying spider mites, and the sampled population happens to be a mix of a strain of very hardy mites and another strain that is quite vulnerable to pesticides. Fanatical Gaussians will immediately clamp the bell shaped curve onto the overall population of mites being studied, thereby wiping out any evidence that this group is in fact a mixture of two strains.

"The commonsensical amateur meanwhile would look at the scatter of the data and see very quickly that instead of a single "peak" in surviving mites, which would be the result if the data were processed by traditional Gaussian rules, there are instead two obvious peaks. He would promptly discern that he has two different strains mixed together on his plants, a conclusion of overwhelming importance for pesticide application".

(Sprey once conducted such a statistical study at Cornell - a bad day for mites.)

 

So how to escape the Gaussian distortion?

"The answer lies in quite simple statistical techniques called 'distribution free' or 'non parametric' methods. These make the obviously more reasonable assumption that one hasn't the foggiest notion of what the distribution of the data should be, especially when considering data one hasn't seen -- before one is prepared to let the data define its own distribution, whatever that unusual shape may be, rather than forcing it into the bell curve. The relatively simple computational methods used in this approach basically treat each point as if it has the same weight as any other, with the happy result that outliers don't greatly exaggerate the scatter.

"So, applying that simple notion to the death rates before and after the US invasion of Iraq, we find that the confidence intervals around the estimated 100,000 "excess deaths" not only shrink considerably but also that the numbers move significantly higher. With a distribution-free approach, a 95 per cent confidence interval thereby becomes 53,000 to 279,000. (Recall that the Gaussian approach gave a 95 per cent confidence interval of 8,000 to 194,000.) With an 80 per cent confidence interval, the lower bound is 78,000 and the upper bound is 229,000. This shift to higher excess deaths occurs because the real, as opposed to the Gaussian, distribution of the data is heavily skewed to the high side of the distribution center".

Sprey's results make it clear that the most cautious estimate possible for the Iraqi excess deaths caused by the US invasion is far higher than the 8,000 figure imposed on the Johns Hopkins team by the fascist bell curve. (The eugenicists of the 1920s were much enamored of Gaussian methodology.) The upper bounds indicate a reasonable possibility of much higher excess deaths than the 194,000 excess deaths (95 per cent confidence) offered in the study published in the Lancet.

Of course the survey on which all these figures are based was conducted fifteen months ago. Assuming the rate of death has proceeded at the same pace since the study was carried out, Sprey calculates that deaths inflicted to date as a direct result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq could be, at best estimate, 183,000, with an upper 95 per cent confidence boundary of 511,000.

Given the generally smug and heartless reaction accorded the initial Lancet study, no such updated figure is likely to resonate in public discourse, especially when it registers a dramatic increase. Though the figures quoted by Bush were without a shadow of a doubt a gross underestimate (he couldn't even be bothered to get the number of dead American troops right) 30,000 dead among the people we were allegedly coming to save is still an appalling notion. The possibility that we have actually helped kill as many as half a million people suggests a war crime of truly twentieth century proportions.

In some countries, denying the fact of mass murder is considered a felony offence, incurring harsh penalties. But then, it all depends on who is being murdered, and by whom.

Andrew Cockburn is the co-author, with Patrick Cockburn, of Out of the Ashes: the Resurrection of Saddam Hussein.

    A US Marine kisses his three-year-old daughter as his unit leaves Camp Pendleton, California for a seven-month deployment to al-Anbar province in western Iraq. The Iraq war will likely cost the United States between one and two trillion dollars, despite earlier assurances by the White House that these expenses would be manageable, according to a new study co-authored by a Nobel Prize-winning economist(AFP/Getty Images/David McNew)

28 American troops in Iraq in 4 days

Suicide attack at Interior Ministry kills 29

Deadly four-day period also claims lives of 28 American troops in Iraq

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes tried to attack National Police Day celebrations Monday, with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest, killing 29 people, authorities said. The U.S. ambassador and Iraq’s interior and defense ministers were in attendance but far from the attacks.

An Internet site known for publishing extremist material from al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carried a claim of responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for the alleged torture of Sunni prisoners at an Interior Ministry facility. The text of the entire statement was not available.

Another statement purportedly by al-Zarqawi rebuked Sunni Arabs for taking part in last month’s parliamentary elections, saying they had “thrown a rope” to save U.S. policy.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said eight U.S. troops and four American civilians died aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed late Saturday in northern Iraq. The military initially said only that there were eight passengers and four crew aboard.

The last few days have been particularly deadly for Iraqis and Americans. Since Thursday, at least 183 Iraqis have been killed, including 148 civilians and 35 security forces. In the same period, 28 Americans have been killed, including 24 troops.

With the latest military deaths, at least 2,207 U.S. service members have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Cause of helicopter crash unknown
The military said the cause of the crash wasn’t known and an investigation would take some time. The helicopter went down about seven miles east of Tal Afar, a northern city near the Syrian border that has seen heavy fighting with insurgents.

The Black Hawk was one of two helicopters providing support for the 101st Airborne Division and was flying between bases when communications were lost, the military said.

It was the deadliest helicopter crash in Iraq since a CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in bad weather in western Iraq on Jan. 26, 2005, killing 31 U.S. service members.

Police Maj. Falah al-Mohammadawi said two suicide bombers carried out the attacks inside the Interior Ministry compound, where National Police Day celebrations were held. The first bomber was shot by the police, although his explosives detonated. A second bomber also detonated his explosives, al-Mohammadawi said.

One bomber wore the uniform of a police major and the other was dressed as a lieutenant colonel, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. The two had passes that enabled them to get through checkpoints and into the compound, the official said.

At least 29 people were killed and 18 injured, mostly policemen, said Ala’a AbidAli of al-Kindi hospital. Body parts were scattered on the ground.

The bombs exploded several hundred yards from the celebration.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi were among hundreds watching a parade of marching soldiers, police patrols and military equipment, but the attacks didn’t affect the parade and none of the officials was hurt, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman.

U.S. raid sparks anger
Sunni Arabs expressed anger over a raid by U.S. troops on the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group. They said they would hold a special ceremony Tuesday at the Umm al-Qura mosque, which was raided early Sunday. The ceremony was organized by the main Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance front and the Iraqi Islamic Party and would also mark the start of the four-day Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha.

The military said the raid came after a tip that there was “significant terrorist related activity in the building,” and six people were detained. The association is thought by some to be close to some insurgent groups.

“The violations of the occupation forces are continuing and they are endless. The raid on the Um al-Qura mosque is the most recent example,” said Muthana Harith al-Dhari, a spokesman for the Association.

In other violence Monday, according to police:

*Gunmen assassinated an investigative judge in Kirkuk.
*In Baghdad, gunmen fired on three people working on the country’s de-Baathification commission, killing one.
*An Iraqi intelligence officer and a doctor were slain in separate attacks.
*Five bodies, bound and blindfolded, were found shot to death in Baghdad late Sunday.
*A car bomb exploded west of Baqouba, killing two civilians.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who resigned as oil minister last week over increases in consumer fuel prices, has again resumed his old post after the prime minister and president asked him to come back, Iraq’s Council of Ministers said.

Al-Zarqawi calls Sunnis ‘hypocrites’
The Internet statement by al-Zarqawi was posted Monday on an Islamic Web site known for publishing extremist material. The authenticity could not be confirmed, but the tape sounded like the Jordanian-born leader of the group.

“This is a call to the Sunnis, in general and the followers of the Islamic Party in particular,” al-Zarqawi said, referring to the Islamic Party in Iraq. The party is the biggest political home for Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, with Mohsen Abdul-Hamid its spiritual leader.

“Where are you being led to? Don’t you fear God?” al-Zarqawi asked.

Referring to the Dec. 15 elections, he said: “At the time, it was very clear to everyone that the crusader enemy was losing, and then you threw a rope to save him.”

Al-Zarqawi accused the Islamic Party and Sunnis of collaborating with the United States and said those who voted in the parliamentary elections were “hypocrites.”

He asked for divine punishment: “God, curse the leaders of the Islamic Party and those who collaborated with them.”

He said the insurgents could have disrupted the elections, “but we did not do it to avoid killing some of the Sunnis who were confused” over whether to take part.

He also said the United States’ announcement last month that it will withdraw some troops from Iraq this year was a victory for the Islamic forces.

Three senior members of the Islamic party declined to comment.

Election results still being processed
Election results will be released after the Islamic holiday, said Hussein Hindawi, a member of Iraq’s electoral commission. Officials said they were still auditing returns from about 50 ballot boxes.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of Iraq’s main Sunni political group, said after meeting President Jalal Talabani on Sunday that significant headway had been made in forming a government of national unity. Al-Dulaimi said Iraq’s two Kurdish leaders, Talabani and Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani, have been talking with other groups on a coalition government.

Their efforts seem to have forged an understanding between the main Shiite religious bloc and al-Dulaimi’s group — which represent two traditionally hostile camps whose enmity often threatens to plunge Iraq into sectarian warfare.

Talabani said Saturday that Iraq’s political groups could form a coalition government within weeks — and some experts say it could be formed next month. Forming a viable broad-based government is a key American goal because if it includes Sunni Arabs, it could help defuse the insurgency.

The U.S. military released more details about how a French hostage Bernard Planche was freed Saturday, saying his captors fled as Iraqi army soldiers searching for weapons caches neared a farmhouse west of Baghdad and he ran to soldiers at a nearby checkpoint. Police said Sunday that Planche had been thrown out of a car nearing a checkpoint.

Planche, 52, who was working for a non-governmental organization he started himself, was abducted Dec. 5. The Defense Ministry in Paris said Planche was returning to France.

Do you know how many today?

Go to Original

    US Helicopter Crash Kills 12 in Iraq
    CNN

Five US Marines also slain over weekend, military says.

    Sunday 08 January 2006

 A US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter is shown in a file photo over Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
(Photo: CNN / DoD)     

 

Baghdad, Iraq - Twelve Americans were killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq early Sunday, the military said.

    The helicopter, which was carrying a crew of four and eight passengers, was flying between bases in the north of the country, according to news releases from the U.S. military.

    A search-and-rescue team found the crash site about noon (4 a.m. ET).

    The military also announced the deaths of five U.S. Marines in three different Iraqi towns Saturday and Sunday.

    Insurgents in Falluja killed three Marines during separate gunbattles Sunday. Falluja is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Baghdad in restive Anbar province.

    On Saturday, roadside bombs killed two Marines, one near al-Karma and another near Ferris. Both towns are near Falluja.

    Since the war began, 2,198 U.S. service members serving in Iraq have died.

    Suicide Bomb Kills 13

    At least 13 people, including six Iraqi police commandos, were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded Saturday as a police commando patrol was passing by, police said.

    The bomb went off in southeast Baghdad's al-Jadida neighborhood, authorities said, about 10:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. ET).

    On Friday, military officials revealed that 11 U.S. troops - eight soldiers and three Marines - were among about 140 people killed in attacks across Iraq Thursday, the deadliest day in Iraq in nearly four months.

    A U.S. soldier and a U.S. Marine were killed in a major suicide bombing targeting an Iraqi police recruitment center in Ramadi, the military said Friday. Both were assigned to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

    Their deaths bring the number of people killed in the Ramadi attack to at least 82, along with about 70 wounded. (More on what happened)

    In addition, two U.S. Marines were killed by small arms fire in separate attacks during combat operations in Falluja, the military said. The Marines were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

    Also, a roadside bomb killed two Task Force Baghdad soldiers on patrol in the Baghdad area of operations, the military said Friday. That incident was under investigation.

    And five other Task Force Baghdad soldiers died in a separate roadside bombing near Baghdad.

    The names of the soldiers and Marines were withheld pending notification of relatives. Since the war began, 2,193 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.

    Thursday's violence also included a suicide bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, where 45 people were killed and 82 wounded, police and hospital officials said. The attacker detonated his explosives near two Shiite shrines, the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas.

    The area has been closed off and police are investigating, said police spokesman Rahman Mishawi.

    Karbala, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, has been relatively free of violence for the past year.

    Asked if the attacks were a sign that the December elections had failed to diminish the insurgency in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace said the opposite was true.

    Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that with each of the country's three elections, voter turnout increased, indicating that "the terrorists failed at each of their primary missions of stopping the vote."

    "What's clear to me is that each of the elections has been a major blow to al Qaeda," Pace said at a Pentagon news conference Thursday. "I think what you're seeing now is a continuing attempt to disrupt the proper formation of the Iraqi government, and I'm confident they will fail."

Liberal Media? Try NeoCon Media -Papers Urge President to Quit

Go to Original

    Newspapers Urge President to Quit
    By Greg Mitchell
    Editor & Publisher

    Friday 06 January 2006

Outrageous, out of the question? Of course. Then again, here's what happened in the summer of 1998 when the president was named Clinton. Dozens of editorial pages clamored for him to quit (see this list). "He should resign," the Philadelphia Inquirer declared, "because his repeated, reckless deceits have dishonored his presidency beyond repair."

    What did "I" do? On Dec. 21, I wrote a little news story for this site about the sudden appearance of the "I" word - impeachment, that is - in reputable publications. The outrage over revelations about President Bush's approval of spying on Americans without a warrant was then at its height, before subsiding to its current level of what-will-they-think-of-next cynicism.

    We got a lot of negative mail about that article, even though we didn't take a position on the matter, but simply pointed out that the "I" word was now being uttered in some surprising places (Barron's magazine?). Certainly, it's no "slam dunk" - to coin a phrase - that the president should be impeached, and most Democrats don't even want it to happen, either because they think they can make hay in the November elections with Bush still in office, and/or they fear a short but perhaps brutal reign of our own King Richard I.

    Still, it amazes me when people make fun of the very notion that a president under a dark cloud might be asked to leave office, or given a push, in light of the very recent experience involving one William Jefferson Clinton. This seems especially poignant, in light of President Clinton leaving office with an approval rating over 60%, while the current occupant of the White House sits at around 40%. Then there's the perennial debate over the relative demerits of fooling around with an intern vs. fooling an entire country into going to war based on false evidence (and anything else you'd care to add on top of that).

    In any case, while still not taking a position on impeachment, I thought it would be interesting to look back at how the press reacted to the Clinton Crisis of 1998. Did newspaper editorials condemn Clinton for his screwing around, and lying about it, and leave it at that, or did they come out squarely for his exit from office?

    What follows, from an Associated Press rundown on September 15, 1998, is a long list of newspapers that "called for President Clinton's resignation." AP added that some of those listed "did so before the release of Kenneth Starr's report on Sept. 11."

    Indeed, the Philadelphia Inquirer responded to the coming of the Starr report this way: "Bill Clinton should resign. He should resign because his repeated, reckless deceits have dishonored his presidency beyond repair."

    The Los Angeles Times pointed out: "The picture of Clinton that now emerges is that of a middle-aged man with a pathetic inability to control his sexual fancies."

    The New York Times, on its Howell Raines-led editorial page, thundered that until the Starr turn, "no citizen ... could have grasped the completeness of President Clinton's mendacity or the magnitude of his recklessness." Yet a Washington Post poll that month showed that while a majority of Americans wanted Congress to censure Clinton, they did not want it to boot him out of office.

    Here is that AP partial list of newspapers calling for Clinton to quit (other papers no doubt joined in later):

    National:
    USA Today

    Alabama:
    The Mobile Register
    Montgomery Advertiser

    Arizona:
    Tucson Citizen

    California:
    San Jose Mercury News
    The Orange County Register
    The North (San Diego) County Times
    The Record, Stockton

    Colorado:
    The Denver Post

    Connecticut:
    The Day of New London
    Norwich Bulletin

    District of Columbia:
    The Washington Times

    Flordia:
    The Orlando Sentinel
    The Tampa Tribune

    Georgia:
    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    The Augusta Chronicle

    Illinois:
    Chicago Tribune

    Indiana:
    The Indianapolis Star
    Chronicle-Tribune of Marion
    South Bend Tribune
    The Times of Northwest Indiana

    Iowa:
    The Des Moines Register

    Kansas:
    The Topeka Capital-Journal

    Louisiana:
    The Times-Picayune of New Orleans
    The News-Star, Monroe

    Michigan:
    The Grand Rapids Press
    Detroit Free Press

    Minnesto:
    Post-Bulletin of Rochester

    Mississippi:
    Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo

    Missouri:
    Jefferson City News-Tribune

    Nebraska:
    Lincoln Journal Star

    Nevada:
    Reno Gazette-Journal

    New Jersey
    The Trentonian, Trenton

    New Mexico:
    Albuquerque Journal
    The Santa Fe New Mexican

    New York:
    Sunday Freeman of Kingston
    Utica Observer-Dispatch

    North Carolina:
    The Herald-Sun of Durham
    Winston-Salem Journal

    Ohio:
    The Repository, Canton
    The Cincinnati Enquirer
    The Cincinnati Post

    Oklahoma:
    The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
    Tulsa World

    Oregon:
    Statesman Journal, Salem

    Pennsylvania:
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
    The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    South Carolina:
    The State, Columbia

    South Dakota:
    Argus Leader, Sioux Falls

    Texas:
    San Antonio Express-News
    El Paso Times

    Utah:
    Standard-Examiner, Ogden
    The Spectrum, St. George
    The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City
    Deseret News, Salt Lake City

    Virginia:
    Daily Press of Newport News

    Washington:
    The Seattle Times

    Wisconsin:
    The Post-Crescent, Appleton
    The Journal Times, Racine

******************************************************************

TVNL Editor's Comments: The criminal pretend news networks halted their broadcasts yesterday each time there was a press conference regarding the medical condition of the one surviving miner (you thought I was going to say Ariel Sharon…didn’t you?) of the accident we all know so much about. How do they keep from laughing as they announce this type of information as if it were a real national news event? Why are this man’s doctors holding press conferences in the first place? Who is affected by the news of his condition? They should be holding briefings with the man’s family and nobody else! (I spent 2 hours calling up the news networks so that I could yell my head off at them for their laughable coverage! I asked them if they would cover news about my mother’s hangnail which was more important to me than the health of an accident victim that I never met and has absolutely no impact on my life and never will! 

The US media made sure they informed you about every single aspect of this man’s health, which included in depth questions being asked by the mob of reporters spending their entire day waiting for this unimportant news. What the US media did not have time to do however, is report to you the details or even a summary about the 38,000 people who are dying each month as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Congo

The reason for this is that ever since Henry Kissinger recommended that “population reduction” in Africa should be official US foreign policy because the US may one day grow to a point of needing the natural resources of Africa, the policy has been followed and the US media will not let you know this.

You see, the US media has been compromised by the powerful entities that actually control our government and dictate policy. This has been proven time and time again. But even if you refuse to believe this you can not deny the fact that the US media ignores all news that exposes atrocities that are committed, supported or quietly tolerated by US. Think about it! – Jesse, Editor, TvNewsLIES.org

Adam Cann from South Florida died in a suicide bombing in Ramadi, Iraq.

There's a video and pictures of Adam on CBS4 website. I couldn't upload it to my page. Too many knocks on the doors this week. If you can, help the families. When will the madness end? May Peace be inside all of us.....

Dad Writes Letter To Ease Pain Of Loosing Son CBS4 And Miami Herald Exclusive Suriving Brother Is Also A US Marine  

Art Barron
Reporting

(CBS4 News) DAVIE Having two sons in the US Marines always filled Davie resident Leigh Cann with pride, but Cann always feared he might one day get the devastating news of loosing one of them.

Thursday that news became a reality after one of his sons died in Iraq and became the subject of a heartfelt letter written to friends and coworkers to ease his pain.

Sergeant Adam Leigh Cann, 23, died trying to protect his comrades and civilians at a police recruitment enter in Ramadi, Iraq. Sergeant Cann, part of the millitary police, sensed trouble when his police canine Bruno became agitated at the possible scent of explosives nearby. According to fellow Marines, Cann did not wait to take action, standing between the man that would become a suicide bomber and the 80 others he intended to kill.

Cann, four other soldiers, and the 80 other victims he tried to protect died.

CBS4's Art Barron spoke to Cann's father and stepmother in Davie who say their son was a leader.

Here is the entire letter the father shared with CBS4 News:

Subject
I love my Marines, now one of mine is gone

I'm numb. I was awakened at 10:30 last night out of a sound sleep to my
door bell. I looked out the window and saw three Marines in their full
dress Greens. I had thought about this situation in the past, and I knew
then, that things were bad.
My son Sgt. Adam Leigh Cann, and his faithful K9 Bruno, were killed
yesterday morning at 1440 hours (7:40 am our time ) in Ramadi, Iraq. He
was at a police recruiting center in Ramadi Iraq, where there were
approximately 1000 Iraqi's in line trying to get ajob, when this SOB MF
walked up with about 17-18 pounds of explosives in a vest with grenades
and ball bearings containedwithin it. 80 were killed including 5
Marines (one being my son and possibly his roommate Jesse (with a
pregnant wife at home) from Camp
Pendleton California, who just arrived in Ramadi a couple of days ago.

I always feared this day and hoped that I would never ever face it. I
have talked to my other son Sgt. Justin Cann (who is back from a recent
tour),in San Diego. He's devastated to say the least. This is what they
do, protecting our cause, being Marines.
To the recipients of this e-mail, I thank you for showing your concerns
and statements.I also apologize for not copying others that I sincerely
care for within my current emotion.

I'll miss my boy, for the rest of my life. He was the best; always
laughing, always responsible, striving to excel, always loving his
family, serving his country.

CBS 4 - South Florida's Source for Breaking News, Weather, and Sports: Dad Writes Letter To Ease Pain Of Loosing Son

WAR IN IRAQ Dad's 'greatest fear': Davie Marine, 23, killed Just three weeks shy of his 24th birthday, Marine Sgt. Adam Cann died in a suicide bombing in Ramadi, Iraq. BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com

Leigh Cann had known for just four hours that his son Adam was dead when, at 2:30 a.m. Friday, unable to sleep, he started writing.

''I'll miss my boy, for the rest of my life. He was the best; always laughing, always responsible, striving to excel, always loving his family, serving his country,'' Cann wrote.

Marine Sgt. Adam Leigh Cann was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq on Thursday, his family said -- one of an estimated 58 people killed in the Ramadi bombing. The bomber had infiltrated a line of police recruits in the city north of Baghdad. A second U.S. soldier also died in the attack. Dozens more were wounded. They included Adam's roommate and another friend, his father said.

He doubted they knew yet that Adam was dead.

Adam was 23, just three weeks from his 24th birthday when he died.

Almost 24 hours later, Leigh Cann still couldn't sleep on Friday. He and Adam's stepmother, Carol, who both work at the Florida Department of Transportation offices in Miami, spent the day at home in Davie.

They fielded phone calls all day from friends, family and lawmakers offeringcondolences. Leigh Cann stopped checking his e-mails. There were too many.

Leigh Cann wore a green and gold sweat shirt for Camp Pendleton, where Adam had been based. A picture of Adam in his Marine uniform hung over one patio door, a picture of Adam's older brother Justin, also a Marine, above the second.

''The minute he walked through door was always like a high school reunion. People just came out of the woodwork,'' said Adam's stepbrother, Jason Burnside. ``He was quick with a joke, always laughing, quoting movie lines. We miss him.''

Adam joined the military after graduating from South Plantation High School in 2000, Leigh said.

He was on his second Iraqi tour in his second enlistment with the military. He already had served one tour in Afghanistan and another in Iraq.

But he wanted to go back. Adam signed up again, Leigh Cann said.

Adam's second Iraqi tour started near the borders of Jordan and Syria, but Adam asked to be moved deeper into Iraq. Adam wanted to be closer to the action, Leigh Cann said.

Adam served with a K-9 unit used for security, like detecting bombs and narcotics, Leigh said. Adam also was in charge of five other K-9 units spread between five bases, Leigh Cann said.

About six weeks ago he moved to Ramadi, Leigh Cann said.

They talked to him last on Christmas Day. In between calls, Adam sent e-mails. His family followed the news for updates.

In his last message, Adam told his family he wanted to go to a few Miami Dolphins games. Adam loved the Dolphins, taking his posters and other fan gear all the way to Camp Pendleton in California, Leigh Cann said.

Adam's tour was scheduled to end in March.

''It was my greatest fear,'' Leigh Cann said. ``But I didn't think it was possible.''

Miami Herald staff writer Larry Lebowitz and AP contributed to this report.

MiamiHerald.com | 01/07/2006 | Dad's 'greatest fear': Davie Marine, 23, killed

************************************************************

  Go to Original

    Bloody Thursday for US Military in Iraq
    Reuters

    Friday 06 January

    Baghdad - Thursday was one of the bloodiest days for US forces in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, with 11 soldiers dying in a fresh spasm of violence that also killed 130 Iraqis, the US military said on Friday.

    Roadside bombs, favored by the insurgents but feared by US soldiers for their devastating effectiveness, accounted for seven of the American deaths.

    US commanders have expressed concern in recent months at the growing use of more powerful and sophisticated bombs.

    US President George W. Bush and his Republican party face pressure at home over the rising American death toll, but the president said on Wednesday a cut in troops would be based on the situation on the ground and decisions by military commanders, not a timetable imposed from Washington.

    The United States hopes the formation of a coalition government encompassing leaders of Iraqi's Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab groups after last month's election will help undermine the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and pave the way for a troop withdrawal.

    Thursday's deaths take the number of US fatalities since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein to 2,193, according to Reuters figures.

    It was the highest daily US death toll since December 1, when 11 US soldiers were also killed, and was also the deadliest day in Iraq overall for four months.

    In Thursday's worst incident for the Americans, five soldiers died in Baghdad when a roadside bomb hit their patrol. Two more were killed in a similar incident elsewhere in Baghdad.

    Al Qaeda in Iraq said it was behind one bombing in north Baghdad which it said destroyed a US military vehicle and killed its crew, according to a posting on an Islamist Web site.

    "Your brothers shall continue their jihad (holy war) in fighting the enemies of God ... until victory or martyrdom," said the Web site statement attributed to al Qaeda.

    In Fallujah, a Sunni Arab stronghold, two Marines were killed by small-arms fire in separate attacks, the US military said in a statement on Friday.

    Two US soldiers and scores of Iraqi police recruits were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the western city of Ramadi as 1,000 men queued to be security-screened at a glass and ceramics works used as a temporary recruiting center.

    Hospital sources said 70 people died and 65 wounded.

    Thursday's suicide bombers killed 123 people and wounded more than 200 in all in attacks near a Shi'ite holy shrine and the Ramadi recruiting station.

    Bush said on Wednesday a reduction of US troops planned after the December election was under way and would result in a net decrease of several thousand troops below the pre-election level of 138,000.

    He has refused to set a schedule, saying that would only embolden the enemy, and that a pullout would be dictated by the progress of Iraqi forces in taking over security.

The Opposite of Good Is Apathy By Cindy Sheehan

The Opposite of Good Is Apathy
    By Cindy Sheehan 
   

The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.
-- William Lloyd Garrison

    The apathy of most of America is stunning and appalling to me. When I found this quote I was filled with wide-eyed wonder that there is one statue left in America complete with statue, or one grave or tomb still occupied.

    On October 26th, as MoveOn.org was holding its candlelight vigils across the country to mourn the death of the 2000th American soldier in Iraq, I and two dozen others were being arrested in front of the White House protesting the carnage done in our name by the illegitimate residents therein.

    Now, counting the 11 American soldiers who were pointlessly killed in George's unconscionable and brainless war of terror in the Middle East, the American "official" death toll is up to 2193: 200 more families ruined in less than three months!

    My son Casey was in the first 1000 to be killed in Iraq. We reached that dismal mark by September 2004. MoveOn.org conducted candlelight vigils for that occasion. Then a little over a year later, MoveOn.org conducted candlelight vigils to commemorate the 2000th soldier. If we don't get off of our collective apathetic and complacent backsides to stop the barbaric killing in Iraq, when will the next candlelight vigil be? George Bush and the evil neocons are killing our precious soldiers at the rate of 2.78 per day. By my calculations, we should be lighting our candles again and singing "Kum bah ya" by October.

    This article is not intended to be an indictment of MoveOn.org, which does some amazing work and who were big supporters of Camp Casey. But my point is this, America: the longer we allow the illegitimate pretender to the White House and his conniving and callous gang of co-conspirators to continue, the more our collective humanity is damaged. Apparently, candlelight vigils do very little to stop, or even slow down a little, the carnage committed by the war criminals in DC.

    Then we have the unfortunate innocents of Iraq. I have heard reports of up to as many as 200 of them killed yesterday. So if 200 were reported, one has to really wonder what the true count was. Bill O'Reilly and George Bush define a terrorist as someone who "kills innocent men, women and children." Am I the only one who sees the irony and stunning hypocrisy in this statement?" Who do Bill and George think are being killed in Iraq? A well-trained and organized Army? Terrorists? We all know that is false. This is who is being killed in Iraq: living breathing human beings, identical to Americans or any other human beings on earth, who are just trying to go about their lives, trying to survive in a war-torn country that was no threat to America or our way of life.

    "I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis," said George on December 12, 2005. Even if one accepts this very low guess-timate by George, his policies have been responsible for ten times the 3000 deaths on September 11, 2001. By his own admission, he is ten times the terrorist that Osama ever was. If George says 30,000 ... who knows what the truthful total is. It fills me with sorrow and hurts my heart to even contemplate the number.

    America: this is what you are allowing your government to do in your name:

    Detain and torture prisoners without due process. Use chemical weapons on other members of humanity. Spy on Americans without a court order (I hope my conversations put them in a coma of boredom). Carpet bomb cities filled with human beings like yourselves. Destroy the infrastructure of other countries. Destroy the infrastructure of American cities. Cut taxes on the rich while pouring money and blood into the thirsty sands of the Middle East. Decimate our treasury. Rape the environment. Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.

    Hillary Clinton told me that the "wheels of government grind slowly." This is a tired cliché and it is unacceptable blather while the war machine is grinding the bones of our children. It is time for us wide-awake Americans to make our elected officials speed up the timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

    If I hear one more rendition of "We Shall Overcome" and then watch the vigilers or marchers go home and turn on their TVs and crack open a brewsky, content in the fact that they have done something for peace that day, I am goingto scream! We can't overcome unless we take the proverbial bull by the horns and overcome!

    Hold your vigils and marches in relevant places: such as warmongering local Congressional offices. So many Senators and Congresspeople come to mind. Or in front of a recruiting station. Or federal buildings. Or military bases. Then instead of going home and cracking open a beer, or uncorking a bottle of wine, sit down and say "we aren't leaving until you call for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq." Put your butt on the line for humanity.

    Change will not happen until we make it happen. We can't make change happen by wishing or praying that it will happen.

    We actually have to do something.