Or check out the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=255863682367&index=1

Spread the word!

The British army has just killed the Mehdi Army’s military chief in Bazra. So now as a consequence there is probably an even greater polarization between “government”/occupation forces and those who are uniting with Al-Sadr and demanding the invaders/occupiers leave Iraq immediately.

Al-Sadr will need to watch out for a U.S. rocket or bomb. However, if or when he is assassinated it would mean the total collapse of the Maliki occupation government. In the scramble to fill the vacuum the Sadrist with their new united front could conceivably take power as the newly trained Iraqi forces turn on their U.S. U.K. trainers and support the will of their people.

In the ensuing stand-off U.S troops could be held as “hostages” by the men they trained and advised. Large numbers of such “hostages” might be the only thing to stop the U.S. from bombing the “mutinous” Iraqis. If the Iraqi people want the U.S. to leave, which seems to be the case, then of course the Iraqi troops would too.
.

“Best Supported, Best Supplied Military Operation in History”

House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense

Key points from the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)

10 May 2007

While IPOA appreciates the interest that Congress is showing on the issue of contractors providing services in Iraq, we regret that we were not offered the opportunity to testify today to provide balance and an industry perspective on these critical issues. There is much that can be improved in government contracting, and IPOA has been at the fore with ideas and suggestions to improve private sector support for international peace and stability operations. While corrections and improvements are important, we should not lose sight of the fact that the innovative and cost effective use of contractors has ensured that the U.S. military operation in Iraq is the best supported and supplied in military history.

Contractors are not new actors in stability operations and areas of conflict. For example, the United States had 80,000 contractors in Vietnam at one point, and that is despite the fact that the Cold War era military did far more of its own logistics and support. Furthermore, because we are going to be working with contractors in the future as well, the question is not whether we should use contractors, but how we can use them better.

A few key points:

1. It is due to the private sector that our operations in Iraq are the best supported and supplied in history. Our military is better able to focus on their core missions and leave the ancillary tasks to professional contractors.

2. The reason we contract services to the private sector instead of utilizing the military is because it significantly reduces the burden and strain on our soldiers in the field. The private sector offers enormous surge capacity, a reservoir of professional capabilities, and huge cost savings.

3. Civilian contractors doing the military support, reconstruction, and security in Iraq are overwhelmingly Iraqis, the people who should be leading such efforts in Iraq. Americans make up only 17 % of Department of Defense contractors, something critics prefer to overlook.

4. Good oversight and accountability are good for good companies. While oversight has improved since 2003, overwhelmed contract officers have had a detrimental effect on the private sector’s ability to fulfill their contracts. In terms of accountability, companies can and are frequently held accountable through standard contractual methods. For individuals, there are a number of laws on the books, including the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), which can be used to try contractors in Federal courts. As a trade association, we believe these laws could be more energetically enforced by the Department of Justice.

5. The U.S. military is designed to be the most capable organization in the world, it is not designed or expected to be particularly cost effective. Outsourcing needs to the private sector brings huge economies of scale and efficiencies that save billions of dollars while reducing burdens and enhancing services to the soldiers in the field.

6. Critics of civilian contractors need to articulate alternatives. Not just for U.S. operations, but for UN and Africa Union peace operations, which rely on contractors for critical services as well.

Your name came up at a WCW-Chicago planning meeting for the march I am leading from Chicago to DC in June. I would like to speak to you, and specifically regarding ways in which CAWI can support it.

Please respond at your earliest convenience.

-Mario Penalver

Third Planet Report–Voices from the streets of Washington DC Peace March January 27, 2007 including an electrifying interview with former 27 year old CIA analyst Ray McGovern–an insider’s view of Bates, Cheney and Bush. Also Interviewed were members of Farms Not Arms, New Orleans Voices For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Courage to Resist, and Code Pink and citizens and residence of the Untied States.

Remembering New Orleans.

By Gordon Soderberg

I’ve been in and around New Orleans since September, 2nd, 2005. I documented thousands of stories about Red Cross, FEMA, Blackwater, National Guard, the Insurance industry and their bureaucratic responce to hurricanes katrina and Rita. It was a natural disaster turned into a military action for a economic boom for some private contractors like Halliburton, Blackwater and Greyhound, and a bust for most everyone else. The everyone else being those that were forced from their homes at gun point by the national guard or Blackwater, seperated from family members and shipped to different states. Those that did not get put on buses were slowly starved out of their communities for a lack of water and food by the Red Cross.

For the last 17 months, the government has seperated family members and systematically displaced over 1,000,000 citzens of the United States without any plan to reunite them back in their communities.

This plantation mantallity must change!

I will never forget what the federal, state, and local police officials did to the people they swore an oath to serve. But I will never forgive those that swore a oath to remain independent of governement influence when providing relief. The Red Cross should stick to securing the blood supply and turn the keys to relief work over to the Department of Peace and Relief.