azimagery AZ Bike & Peace: Today, June 30, is a national holiday in Iraq

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Once again, Id like to thank you for your tremendous efforts.You and people like you sent more than 2,600 e-mails to Congress to request cutting funding for additional F-22s, a weapon not even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wanted. Weve made our voices heard.

But Iraq hasnt gone away.Far from it.

Today, June 30, is a national holiday in Iraq.

Many Iraqis believe this is a historic day because today all U.S. combat forces are scheduled to leave Iraqi cities, towns and villages in accordance with the bilateral security agreement signed between the two governments last year.

The American Friends Service Committee believes that the removal of U.S. combat forces is a positive step toward the withdrawal of all US troops. That, we believe, is the strategic and long-term solution to creating a stable, united, and sovereign Iraq.

Today, though, is just one benchmark along the countdown to complete withdrawal.

During the last six years of occupation, Iraq has witnessed both periods of relative calm and cycles of increased violence. Huge challenges lie ahead for the Iraqi people as they work to strengthen the fragile political and security situation.

The Countdown to Withdrawal campaign will continue to follow and assess each benchmark of the agreement. We hope you will continue to help us urge the U.S. government to meet its obligations and responsibilities for a complete withdrawal of all forces.

You can help on a local level.

Again, I thank you for helping us in the past, and I hope we can count on your help in the future.

Wage peace,
Laurie Creasy signature

Laurie Creasy,
American Friends Service Committee

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American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
http://www.afsc.org/

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born to a Jewish mother and an Iraqi father. She recently put her medical career on hold to visit with family members in Iraq, and recently returned from a three-month stay in Basrah and Baghdad. Dr. Wasfi described her experience in Iraq and discussed the life of Iraqis under occupation on April 27, 2006 in Washington, DC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELjgVq6GtPA

Friends for PeaceAn online campaign to show the faces and commitment of the pro-peace majority in a nonpartisan public witness to end the war in Iraq. More about Friends for Peace

Visit http://www.afsc.org/cost to tell Congress how you want your tax dollars spent. The Iraq war has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of U.S. military
personnel. It is also costing $720$ Million dollars each day - dollars that could be spent in much more constructive ways. It is time to DEFUND the war and RE-FUND human needs in the U.S. and Iraq. Get more details about our Cost of War campaign and sign our petition at
- Alex Jones
Prison Planet.com - http://www.prisonplanet.com -

US military wasted taxpayer money in Iraq: report

Posted By admin On June 11, 2009 @ 3:59 am In U.S. News | Comments Disabled

Press TV
Thursday, June 11, 2009

The first audit released by US Congressional Commission of Wartime Contracting reveals that the military has wasted huge sums of its USD $834billion$ budget on contractors.

The 121-page report on security, logistics and renovation contracts indicates that the US government has failed to oversee the defense expenditures it disbursed to key contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report refers to large-scale cases of fraud and mismanagement of contracts during the so-called war on terror which have cost American taxpayers $billions$of dollars.

Michael Thibault, co-Chairperson of the investigating panel told the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on Wednesday that the disturbing implications go far beyond questions of good management and financial responsibility.

They directly involve our nations ability to achieve policy objectives and provide proper support and protection for our war fighters and civilian employees engaged in contingency operations.

The congressional body records say that over 70 percent of the deals in Iraq have been granted to subcontractors who employ cheap international labor force.

The move obliterates efforts aimed at clarifying the militarys spending, said the commissions co-chairperson Christopher Shays a former Republican congressman from Connecticut.

We dont
have enough people watching the contractors, he noted.

The report adds that the US military spent over $30 million dollars$ on building a single dining facility at Camp Delta in Baghdad, which is to be completed in December 2009. By that time most US troops will have left the country according to an interim US-Iraqi security pact.

The panel registers more instances of irresponsible military spending in Afghanistan including a case in which the Army Corps of Engineers endorsed the construction of a multimillion-dollar project in order to serve as US command center. But the commission reported that many of the headquarters equipment had gone missing.

The auditors assessment drew the ire of US legislators, with some blasting the poor administrative oversight and misuse of public funds.

Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch said, upon hearing the commission account, that its only happening because its taxpayers dollars.

We cant continue to operate this way in terms of contracts going out without proper accountability standards, he went on to say.

Hundreds of US contractors have employed over 240,000 workers most of them foreign nationals in Iraq in an attempt to rebuild the countrys infrastructure and overhaul its security issues.

The report goes on to say that over 600,000 property items are currently held in US army HQs without proper documentation and maintenance.

Critics allege that the US government under President Barack Obama has done little to curb the fraudulent behavior of army contractors.

Article printed from Alex Jones Prison Planet.com: http://www.prisonplanet.com

URL to article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/us-military-wasted-taxpayer-money-in-iraq-report.html

http://www.democracynow.org/

Pundits-double-web EXCLUSIVE...Pentagon Pundits: New York Times Reporter David Barstow Wins Pulitzer Prize for Exposing Military's Pro-War Propaganda Media Campaign

In his first national broadcast interview, New York Times reporter David Barstow speaks about his 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the Pentagon propaganda campaign to recruit more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as military analysts ahead of and during the Iraq war. This week, the Pentagon inspector generals office admitted its exoneration of the program was flawed and withdrew it. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html

Galleymorebk-web Author Susan Galleymore on Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror

Author Susan Galleymores son served in Iraq and Afghanistan. For her latest book, Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror, Galleymore traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, the US, and Israel and the Occupied Territories to interview other mothers about war and its consequences. http://www.mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org/

Howe-web Mother’s Day for Peace: A Dramatic Reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation

Ahead of Mothers Day, we play an excerpt of Robert Greenwalds short film Mother’s Day for Peace. It features a dramatic reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation by Felicity Huffman, Christine Lahti, Fatma Saleh, Ashraf Salimian, Vanessa Williams and Alfre Woodard. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm

Julia Ward Howe

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.