Tuesday, April 24, 2007



It's amazing how time can literally fly....like a mosquito....we don't often give notice when we "zip" away. But thankfully none of us here at The Mosquito Blog have to worry about living in a hot spot such as Baghdad....No one was worried that we had been kidnapped or killed.

I took an "unexpected" amd spontaneous hiatus. I had had enough of watching my country face what I call treason from the current gang in the White House with all their corruption and corporate empire plans...and when offered a chance for some adventure I took it.

I'm enjoying a little travel and off time. I should be returning sometime next month and "hopefully" I'll have more of an idea where I want to go during this next year....

Thanks so much Mac for managing to post some this month. Star has been dealing with some dental issues and wasn't inspired to write. However, I spoke with her this morning and she thinks she'll be resuming posting soon. We have all decided that during the summer we don't want to feel pressured to post each and every day....we want to post when the mood strikes....so we shall see what the summer brings....

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Third Anniversay of the First Attack on Fallujah (cont'd)

A segment of Picasso's famous painting, Guernica




http://www.robertsilvey.com/photos/uncategorized/fallujah1.jpg



This April marks the third anniversay of the first of two American-led military assaults culminating in the massive destruction of most of the ancient Iraqi city of Fallujah. Consequently, I am republishing my account of this event here on Mosquito Blog, lest we forget. It was first published by the Southern I in print form, and later at OpEdNews.com, the web-link to which site you can access by clicking on this article's title above. Here is Part 2.

Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times

Part 2: The Destruction Begins

By Mac McKinney


"Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness." - Mahatma Gandhi

*****

The slaying of the four Blackwater contractors, whom some would call soldiers of fortune, for they were well-trained weapons experts, one an ex-Navy Seal, the others former Army Rangers, and certainly not simple construction or relief workers, did not play well back in the States. The corporate media became obsessed with their grizzly deaths, and newspaper editorials raged over the manner of their deaths. Comparisons with the traumatic incident in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, when slain GIs were dragged through the streets, further enflamed emotions and rhetoric. What was rapidly becoming lost in the corporate media and public responses was any in-depth, impartial analysis of the event or the background in Fallujah. Little mention was made that a number of the city's civilians had been slain by American forces or that the Army had been engaging in hostile and aggressive street patrols for months, often employing violent, destructive entries into homes that resulted in the arrests and imprisonment of Fallujah's citizens, including prominent ones. That tensions between Americans and citizens were very high is painstakingly obvious. That many Fallujans felt humiliated, angry or vengeful further belabors the point. That this growing list of grievances compelled some citizens to join some facet of the now multi-dimensional Iraqi insurgency is not a giant leap in logic. However, official American pronouncements and communiqués basically denied the legitimacy of these grievances, constantly referring to those taking up arms as Baathists, terrorists and "other malcontents." I suppose British officers said something similar about American rebels some 230 years ago.

So now the clichéd image of Fallujah as a lawless hotbed of insurgent violence somehow unrelated to an increasingly brutal occupation began to dominate the news. The "they" of the original mob action of some one thousand plus people easily segued into a wider "they", i.e. the people of Fallujah in general. Remembering that over three hundred thousand people inhabited Fallujah at the time, this was a dangerous segue indeed. If a mob of a thousand people rioted in downtown Norfolk over some incident, would the media be so quick to say that the "people" of Norfolk had rioted, that Norfolk was a lawless and violent city, or furthermore that the city should be brought to heel? We must remember, furthermore, that the American Army had been in official control of Fallujah for months supposedly pacifying the population, before pulling out in the last few weeks. If Fallujah was now deemed anarchistic, what does that say about the character of the Army's administration for the past year? Had the Army been unable to contain a chaotic situation, or had their presence actually created or aggravated the situation?

Fallujah Calm


Ironically, Fallujah, upon Saddam Hussein's overthrow, was decidedly more peaceful than many other parts of Iraq before American troops arrived in April of 2003. Human Rights Watch, in a report on Fallujah dated June, 2003, (Violent Response: the US army in al-Falluja) describes how tribal and religious leaders had created a Civil Management Council to maintain order against the widespread looting and vicarious destruction that was sweeping through the rest of Iraq at the time. The Council, acting through the tribes and Sunni imams, was largely successful. Tribal fealty and respect were powerful in Fallujah. Recall that Fallujah was nicknamed the City of Mosques, denoting a strong religious foundation, and had had a storied history as a Jewish academic center in the Middle Ages, for Islam generally accepted the Jews culturally for generations. It was now a modern, teeming, industrial city, not some primitive, backwater junction. And when the US Army first entered Fallujah, the tribes even elected a staunchly pro-American mayor, Taha Bidaywi Hamed, to negotiate with them.

Nor was the city the purely Baathist, pro-Saddam citadel often alleged in the corporate media. Although that element was indeed strong, the above-mentioned report states that: "Human Rights Watch did not find overwhelming sympathy for Saddam Hussein following the collapse of his government. Many al-Falluja residents told Human Rights Watch that they considered themselves victims and opponents of his repressive rule." This is, perhaps, not surprising, given that the city is famous for its spirit of rebellion. Indeed, Fallujah is best known in the minds of Iraqis as the symbol of resistance against the early 20th Century Imperial British occupation of their land.

Lawrence of Arabia Speaks Out


At the end of World War I the British, cynically carving up the defeated Ottoman Empire with their gleeful French allies, took control of what became the state of Iraq. By early 1920, however, the British government found itself facing a growing revolt there. T.E. Lawrence, more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia, had himself warned England not to attempt heavy-handed Imperialist designs against the independence aspirations of the Arabs, whom Lawrence had fought alongside and grown to respect as valiant, proud and determined guerrilla fighters, a people not to be taken lightly or treated disrespectfully. The British, however, threw caution to the wind and dispatched the famous English explorer, Lt. Col. Gerard Leachman, to stop a local rebellion in Fallujah. Leachman, however, was slain just south of the city in a confrontation with the local tribal leader, Shaykh Dhari. Vengeful, the British ordered the Imperial Army and Royal Air Force to crush the rebellion, and the ensuing assault on Fallujah cost more than 10,000 Iraqi and 1,000 British lives. Although Fallujah was bloodied and battered, even more widespread rebellion by both Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites now ensued. By August of 1920, Lawrence would write disgustedly:

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster."

"......We say we are in Mesopotamia to develop it for the benefit of the world. All experts say that the labour supply is the ruling factor in its development. How far will the killing of ten thousand villagers and townspeople this summer hinder the production of wheat, cotton, and oil? How long will we permit millions of pounds, thousands of Imperial troops, and tens of thousands of Arabs to be sacrificed on behalf of colonial administration which can benefit nobody but its administrators?" (Sunday Times, August 2, 1920)

This decades-old missive to the London Times could just as well be written today and be equally as timely and truthful, if not more so. The growing rebellion was ultimately only defused in 1922 through the strenuous efforts of a young Winston Churchill, who personally enlisted Lawrence's considerable aid in resolving the conflict.

This, then, was the legacy of Fallujah when American-led coalition forces invaded Iraq, proclaiming themselves as liberators but soon acting, fundamentally, as occupiers usually act, that is, arrogantly and brutally, not unlike the British in 1920. Is it surprising that many Fallujans now felt an obligation to renew this legacy against the latest army of occupation? And you certainly didn't have to be a Baathist to feel this way. Let us reflect a moment. If a hypothetical British army were to occupy Massachusetts today, imposing martial law, ransacking houses and shooting, beating and incarcerating citizens, would not the inhabitants of Boston feel the heritage of their own revolutionary ancestors weighing upon them in a similar vein?

Operation Vigilant Resolve Begins


An order of battle was now being drawn up by military headquarters in Iraq. That American authorities were about to retaliate against Fallujah for the Blackwater contractor slayings became increasingly obvious to the world and to the inhabitants of Fallujah. It must be noted that a number of citizens both in Fallujah and throughout Iraq were combat veterans of the long and bloody Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988 with a pyrrhic Iraqi victory, and that some of these veterans were now helping to organize a hasty defense of Fallujah, and they may not have necessarily considered themselves members of any insurgent or guerrilla faction, but simply defenders of their city.

On April 2, 2004 Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmit removed any lingering doubts about US intentions by vowing to hunt down the killers and retake Fallujah. The American-managed Coalition Provisional Authority's Iraqi Governing Council seconded these sentiments and authorized the Iraqi National Guard to participate. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved into various positions to begin a massive operation, not only in Fallujah, but throughout Anbar Province, part of the Sunni Triangle, to strike broadly at the insurgency.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, on or around April 4, 2004, Operation Vigilant Resolve was launched, originally publicized as a combined US Marine-Iraqi National Guard operation, but the recently created Iraqi units had little stomach for combat. Most, if not all, deserted, some declaring that they did not sign up to fight fellow Iraqis. So this became, essentially, a Marine Corps operation, combining infantry and armored divisions, artillery, and Marine and Navy air support. The Marines had at their disposal Navy F/A-18 Hornet carrier-based Fighter-Bombers equipped with 20-mm cannon for strafing and 500-pound GBU-12 laser guided bombs, as well as lethal AC-130 "Spectre" gunships, F-15 Fighters and Cobra Attack Helicopters.
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oif-vigilant-resolve.htm)

The huge AC-130 gunship is fitted with a battery of Gatling guns and cannons capable of saturating an entire football field with heavy fire in mere seconds, and incorporates an ultra high-tech fire control and night vision system second to none in the world. An earlier model was first employed in the Vietnam War with devastating effect and was nicknamed, with blackest humor, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", the title of a popular children's song by Peter, Paul and Mary.

On the ground, the Marines sealed off and cordoned Fallujah into four quadrants and began to cautiously enter the city, their stated intention, in particular, to arrest the perpetrators of the Blackwater slayings and other attacks, if that was even remotely feasible, and in general, to engage and neutralize active enemies of American forces and the Coalition-created Iraqi government.

As the Marines slowly plodded ahead, explosions and gunfire could be heard on Monday, April 5, as skirmishes between the Marines and random Fallujan gunmen began to break out. Monday's attacks could well be considered probing actions by both sides. On Tuesday, things began to intensify dramatically as the Marines drove toward the center of the city, drawing increasingly heavy hostile fire. The Marines soon realized that they were facing an enemy experienced in Russian-style defense-in-depth tactics, most likely led by army veterans from the Iran-Iraq war. The Marines' advance now morphed into a fierce battle against guerrillas holed up in a residential neighborhood and laying down fire that included mortars and RPGs (Rocker Propelled Grenades), a firefight that lasted for hours, causing exasperated commanders to call in an AC-130 "Spectre" that duly sprayed Iraqi positions with a hailstorm of bullets. How many insurgents or hapless residents were caught in this deadly fusillade is not really known, but the fact that the command was even willing to deploy the AC-130 over a residential neighborhood would serve as a grim omen for the city.

Casualties were now beginning to mount on all sides, including among non-combatants. The hospitals in Fallujah were starting to see a steady stream of the wounded and dying. As night fell, the Marines pulled back from their forward-most positions and called in air strikes, American warplanes, according to a Fox News report, firing rockets that destroyed four houses, with a doctor claiming, the report continues, that 26 men, women and children were slain in this attack, another 30 wounded. Throughout the night in various parts of the city, Marine squads weaved in and out of buildings, engaging guerrillas sporadically and trying to stake out posts, while the heavy whirl of rotary blades could be heard overhead as Marine helicopters circled, hovered or darted about above the rooftops, laying down intermittent fire against perceived enemy positions.

As the night wore on and the first rays of sunlight began to illuminate the horizon, violence, which had yet to reach its apex in the City Of Mosques, was also beginning to erupt throughout Iraq, as if Fallujah had been but the fuse to ignite an even larger powder keg.

(Combat source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116262,00.html)


Next article, Part 3:
Protests Amid the Onslaught

Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Third Anniversay of the First Attack on Fallujah

Photo of destroyed Guernica after Nazi bombing, from http://www.search.com/reference/Bombing_of_Guernica



























Above, a photo of destruction in Fallujah during American assaults, from www.firedoglake.com

This April marks the third anniversay of the first of two American-led military assaults culminating in the massive destruction of most of the ancient Iraqi city of Fallujah. Consequently, I am republishing my account of this event here on Mosquito Blog, lest we forget. It was first published by the Southern I in print form, and later at OpEdNews.com, the web-link to which can be accessed by clicking on this article's above title.

Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times

Part 1: The City of Mosques


By Mac McKinney


On the afternoon of April 26, 1937 the Basque city of Guernica, Spain suddenly became the target of wave after wave of German Nazi and Italian Fascist aerial bombardment and strafing. Hitler and Mussolini had allied themselves with General Franco's Falangist forces against the Second Republic of Spain and had sent air squadrons and other assets to the Spanish front in solidarity. Spearheading the Luftwaffe contingent was the Condor Legion, equipped with Junkers bombers and fighter escorts well-suited for strafing.

Over a period of several hours Guernica was all but demolished, a fierce firestorm generated by the bombings completing the destruction of three quarters of the city's buildings. The death toll has never been accurately assessed, with estimates ranging from 120 to 10,000. The then Basque government put the total at 1650 minimum.

Motivation for the horrific attack was apparently to demoralize the Republicans and terrorize civilians. Guernica served no strategic importance. The bombing also occurred shortly after the capture and lynching of a German pilot in nearby Bilbao. So Nazi retaliation, always high in proportionate response, may have been another key factor.

Guernica is memorialized in history as the first city to be destroyed by air assault. Pablo Picasso went on to immortalize this terrible event with his famous and disconcerting painting, simply entitled "Guernica."

Fast forward some 66 years, past decade upon decade of ongoing, world-wide wars and destruction, to April of 2003 and the Iraqi city of Fallujah, in the Sunni triangle of Iraq, situated some 43 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River. An historical city dating back to Babylonian times, Fallujah is known as the "City of Mosques", housing some 200 Islamic houses of worship. It was also an important center of Jewish academies for several centuries. When Operation Iraqi Freedom, the American-dominated invasion of Iraq began in March, 2003, the city's population was some 350,000.

American troops first entered Fallujah in April of 2003, quickly setting up their headquarters in the former Baath Party headquarters, which caused immediate local resentment. However, a Fallujah Protection Force composed of cooperating Iraqis was soon established to help maintain order. But things rapidly turned sour when an incident on April 28 revolving around curfew violations led to the deaths of 15 Iraqis from American gunfire.

The Army's 82nd Airborne Division spearheaded the patrolling of Fallujah and interestingly, a documentary, Operation Dreamland, was actually made, focusing on one patrol's daily routines and survival in Fallujah. The documentary shows how the air was tense and dangerous, while relations with civilians became increasingly abrasive, as the insurgency throughout Iraq and likewise Fallujah strengthened and spread. Killings of American soldiers started to take a toll, and heavily armed Americans patrols often included forced entries and weapons searches of Iraqi homes, with the males in the family often arrested, black-hooded and driven off for interrogation and/or imprisonment.

By March, 2004, the Army was ordered to abandon Fallujah, to be replaced by the Marine Expeditionary Force. However, March was a bad month for relations in Fallujah. On March 29, citizens protesting the American occupation of a school refused to disperse when ordered and were eventually fired upon by American forces. According to the BBC, 17 Iraqis died, the Army arguing that the protesters were armed, eye witnesses claiming they were not. Two days later, another protest occurred outside the old Baath party headquarters and mayor's office. Three more Fallujans were slain. And this was all transpiring while the Army was trying to pull out of the city. Obviously tensions between Americans and Fallujans were getting worse and worse.

That same day, March 31st, another, much more ominous event occurred. Four military contractors for Blackwater USA drove into Fallujah, apparently lost. They were attacked and slain, their bodies mutilated and burned and then ultimately hung from the nearby bridge over the Euphrates. A large crowd, estimated at over a thousand, congregated and participated to various degrees, jubilant at the Americans' death. This was videotaped by nearby journalists and eventually broadcast around the world. In the United States, cries of outrage and calls for retaliation were immediate and forceful.


Next article, Operation Vigilant Resolve:
The Destruction Begins

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Hats On to We The People Congress

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV


I was surfing through the Wayne Madsen Report the other day when I was struck by these very interesting photos that Madsen either took or got the rights to of a Washington rally in front of the White House defending the US Constitution, put on by "We the People Congress"


VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV


(click here and scroll down to the March 31-April 1, 2007 insert for Madsen's full article with more photos.)

The characters in the photos are dressed up as the "antihero" in last year's hit movie "V for Vendetta" by the Wachowski brothers, which in turn was based on the historical character, Guy Fawkes. (The official movie website is vforvendetta)


Just as V was taking a strong stand against full-blown totalitarianism in a futuristic Great Britain, in similar fashion (minus blowing up the English Parliament) these "V" protesters outside the White House are taking a strong stand against the very current, creeping totalitarianism of the fear-driven National Security State, which is not so slowly gutting our Constitutional freedoms and rights in the name of fighting that scary spectre from our collective subconsiousness, "TERROR".

"We the People Congress" should be strongly applauded for defending the Constitution in these disjointed times, times when alien ideologies deifying the Warfare State and diminishing the individual are taking root in the Washington Establishment and beyond. Check out their website at givemeliberty (you can click on the article title above too). For their own full article on the White House protest, click here. As our forefathers tirelessly pointed out, eternal vigilance and the courage to defend our liberties are the primary tools we have against what has always been the greatest menace to humanity, the all-powerful State, self-righteous, voracious for power and operating beyond the restraints of morality and ethics.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

We Need a New 911 Commission, Really Independent This Time

I don't care what your opinion is about 9/11 and who did what on that fateful day, but one thing is starkly clear - the original 911 Commission was not independent, but engineered and manipulated, and its report was badly flawed. Here is a concise video that points this out in a ten minute nutshell. It's Called "911 Commission Debunked in Under Ten Minutes". Click on the title above to see it.

We need the whole truth about 911, not filtered segments and spun conclusions. We have to realize that the powers that be didn't even want a commission in the first place, and had to be embarrassed into creating one, largely through the efforts of the "Jersey Girls", a group of wives of 911 victims. Bush's first choice to head the commission was, amazingly, Dr. Strangelove himself, Henry Kissinger.