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Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn ("In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."). --HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

The stars hath turned in the heavens once more: Mighty Cthulhu stirs. His dreams reacheth forth, communing with those with ears to hear. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! His thoughts trample down along the pathways of thy mind; thou knowest His footprints, each of which is a wound...

Monday, August 09, 2004



Meet the New Boss...

Via Daily Kos comes this report from The Oregonian:


On the morning of June 29, Oregon guardsmen set off from their base near the Interior Ministry on routine neighborhood patrols...One of the scouts posted in a tall building squinted through his rifle scope at the courtyard adjoining the Interior Ministry. He saw a man in plainclothes standing over a handcuffed and blindfolded prisoner. The guardsman watched through his rifle scope as the man reared back and brought what appeared to be a stick or metal rod down on the prisoner, who was lying on the ground.





The scout took pictures through his scope and considered his options.

The Oregon guardsman did not speak for this story. But others who spoke with the soldier said he radioed battalion headquarters to report the beating. According to one soldier, he said he would begin shooting the Iraqi guards if someone didn't intervene.

This wasn't a US-run facility, and this wasn't last year. The scene that the 2/162 Oregon National Guard stumbled across was an Iraqi jail, and the date was June 29th, the day after "sovereignty" was given to Iraq.

The torturers were our "allies".


A boy, identified as a 14 year-old, was among the prisoners when Oregon National Guardsmen responded to reports of what appeared to be prisoner abuse June 29 at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior.

When left to use their own judgement, our soldiers displayed a higher moral compass and put a stop to what was obviously an attrocity in progress: You will share my pride in knowing that the Oregonians siezed the jail, disarmed the guards, and administered first-aid to the victims.




When theatre commanders became aware of what was happening, politics reared its poisonous head: You will share my rage in reading that higher-ups ordered the Guardsmen to leave, and leave the prisoners under control of their abusers.

Wouldn't want to embarrass our "allies", after all.



The orders came from above the 162nd Infantry, from above its parent unit, the 1st Cavalry Division. Said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond of the 1st Cavalry:


"[The story of what happened June 29] needs to be told," Hammond acknowledged when interviewed by The Oregonian. But he said that, "because of the nature of this issue, it's being handled at a higher level than me."
And there it is: 930 soldiers have died so that ShrubCo™ could install their own version of a brutal regime that arrests, tortures, and kills its own citizens without so much as a show trial.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.



(All of the prisoner photos were taken by soldiers of the Oregon National Guard, 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry. I can't begin to express my pride in their professionalism and compassion. It's truly criminal that their political leaders are so unworthy of the fine soldiers they command.)

(The Oregonian is currently hosting all 23 photos here.)

Posted by: Great Cthulhu / <$BlogItemDateTime $>
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