• From the International Crisis Group:

    Ten actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated in May 2006, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch,* released today. Afghanistan saw its worst violence since 2001, with  some  350 insurgents, civilians and security personnel killed across its southern provinces. There was heavy fighting in  Mogadishu, Somalia,  between the Islamic Courts militia and the U.S.-backed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, leaving over 200 dead. Tensions increased in the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of 30 July elections, and clashes in Ituri province killed 60. Security collapsed in Timor-Leste after renegade soldiers clashed with security forces. In Israel/Occupied Territories, mounting violence in Gaza fuelled by a power struggle between Fatah and Hamas loyalists raised fears of civil war. Lebanon experienced its worst cross-border fighting in six years after rockets were fired into northern Israel in apparent response to the killing of an Islamic Jihad group leader in southern Lebanon. The situation also deteriorated in Brazil, Mali, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

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  • The Few and the Proud: Marine Corps Drill Instructors in Their Own Words

    The Few And The Proud; Marine Corps Drill Instructors In Their Own Words, by Larry Smith.
    [rating:4/5]

    Okay, if I gave out C+ or B-, this would be there. The book contains profiles and interviews of various drill instructors from the WW2 era to today. Some of these are very interesting, and others are not.

    “There was a kid, some bohunk kid from Mississippi or somplace who didn’t know his left foot from his right, kept marching badly. The drill sergeant walked over, very cordial and sweet, and said to him, ‘Are you having trouble, keeping the rhythm of the march?’ And the kid said, ‘Yes, Sergeant.’ He said, ‘Well you seem to be having trouble knowing which foot to pivot on when we’re making those fast turns.’ And the kid said, ‘That’s right, Sergeant.’ So the D.I. lifted up his foot and he slammed it down on the kid’s foot and he said, ‘Now, pivot on the one that hurts.’ I never forgot that.”

    That one was from the 50s. Here’s a guy from the present day, Will Post:

    “The thing that really ticked me off in Kosovo was, you know, they called this crap peacekeeping. How do we keep peace? We kill the bad guys. If you act up, we’re going to kill you. After what happened in Kosovo when the bad guys shot at my guys, I believe that 99 percent of other units would have let go and just radioed in. But I asked the Marines, I didn’t know if any of my guys were hit yet, and I asked them, Can you see them shooting? They said yes. Are they shooting at you? They yelled back to me yes. I said, ‘Kill ’em. Kill ’em.’ And that’s why we wound up doing what we did. Peacekeeping to me is horseshit. It only takes one bullet to end your war, and I’ll be damned if it’s going to happen to one of my Marines on my watch because of being restrained. And those Marines understood: My God. This ain’t peacekeeping. These people are trying to kill us. You turn your back on them for one minute, they will kill you. Damn right.”

    Another bit from Will Post:

    “As for Iraq, a lot of my friends, first sergeants and sergeants major are over there, and they report the Marines are just performing superbly. Nearly all Marines are chomping at the bit to get over there. You don’t hear them complaining about deployment time. This is what they came in the Marine Corps to do. They’re warriors, dealing with snipers and IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices; I’m old school. I call them booby traps, because that’s what they are. Mostly, it’s very frustrating, but they’re doing their job wonderfully, and as usual 99.9 percent of the stuff that’s going on don’t make the papers, just the bad stuff. The people over there absolutely love them.”

    The Few And The Proud; Marine Corps Drill Instructors In Their Own Words, by Larry Smith.
    [rating:4/5]

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  • From KSL:

    Bill Tibbitts, Anti-Hunger Action Committee: “Extremely frustrating, very sad.”

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  • From the Guardian:

    The report also shows that in a single year checkpoints run by a warlord in a medium-size town can earn him more than $4m (£2.1m).

    There, in dollars and cents, lie the reasons that Somalia has remained a byword for anarchy for so long. Chaos equals cash for those with guns.

    A functioning national government, which President Abdullahi Yusuf is trying to install, would spell financial disaster for the warlords and the cartels.

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  • Please read the comments below. They are more informative and correct than this article may have been. It seems obvious to me that the article I quoted here is not up to snuff. -Trent

    From the Guardian Newspaper:

    “First, I cut off your head. Then, I cleave you in two.” Eugene, my travelling companion and a fluent Japanese speaker, translated as a 450 year old samurai sword sliced a curving arc around his body, inches away from his face and chest. The words, and the sword, belonged to Hamamoto, a 70-year-old sensei and founder of the Hamamoto fighting style. The Hamamoto style, we soon discovered, is extremely violent and quite unsporting: he beckoned Eugene to kneel opposite him and encouraged him to bow. Mid-bow he suddenly unsheathed his sword and told him: “Now I take the butt of my sword and break your chin. Then I disembowel you.”

    More Here.

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  • From the Moscow Times:

    No suspects had been detained as of Tuesday.

    “According to witnesses, the killers were yelling, ‘Glory to Russia’ and ‘Long live Russia,’” said Simon Tsaturyan, the Sardaryan family’s lawyer.

    Tsaturyan said the attackers pulled the train’s emergency lever after stabbing Sardaryan and fled the scene. Sardaryan died on the spot, Tsaturyan said.

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  • From the BBC:

    The satellite images show the destruction of one settlement near Harare, which had contained some 850 structures before last May.

    The human rights group says the photos are irrefutable evidence how entire communities were obliterated.

    The UN says some 700,000 people were directly affected by the demolitions.

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  • From Vinyl Pulse:

    MUTTPOP X KOZIK = EL BRUJO NARCO SATANICO TEQUILA

    ON SALE EXCLUSIVELY AT VINYLPULSE.COM NEXT TUESDAY (6/6/6).

    LIMITED TO 333 FIGURES.

    Here.

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  • From the Guardian:

    It’s another mystery for Doctor Who – where have the viewers gone?

    BBC1’s Doctor Who revival has been lavished with critical praise and awards, but there are signs midway through its second series that viewers may be tiring of the time travelling sci-fi drama.

    Saturday’s Doctor Who, the seventh out of 13 episodes in the second series, was the lowest-rated yet since the show returned last year to rave reviews and big audiences.

    Here.

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  • From the New York Times:

    Somehow Operation Iraqi Freedom, not a large war by America’s historical standards, has blossomed into a crisis of expectations that threatens our ability to react to future threats with a fist instead of five fingers. Instead of rallying we are squabbling, even as the slow fuse burns.

    One party is overly sanguine, unwilling to acknowledge its errors. The other is overly maudlin, unable to forgive the same. The Bush administration seeks to insulate the public from the reality of war, placing its burden on the few. The press has tried to fill that gap by exposing the raw brutality of the insurgency; but it has often done so without context, leaving a clear implication that we can never win.

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  • From the Moscow Times:

    “I punched him in the face myself because I’m a normal Russian guy,” Alexei said, grinning.

    Using a widespread Russian expression, Alexei said he and others came to protest the march to “combine the pleasant things with the useful things” — hanging out with his friends while physically beating people he considers perverts.

    Here.

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  • From the New York Times:

    The Somali smugglers are a ruthless lot. They charge $30 to $100 for passage, quite a bit since they pack 80 to 200 bodies into the fishing boats. And payment does not guarantee safe passage, not by a long shot.

    If the seas get too rough, some passengers might be hurled overboard to lighten the load. If someone dares to stand up during the voyage, a whack with a stick or a gun butt is the inevitable punishment. Unaccompanied women might find themselves sexually molested by the crew in the dark.

    But it is when the Yemeni Coast Guard appears and the boat owner risks losing his craft that things get even worse. The crew is likely to force all the passengers into the sea at gunpoint. If anyone hesitates, the crew will sometimes tie the hands of the passengers and throw them out, or simply shoot them.

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  • From the New York Times:

    Hiba Abdullah survived the killings by American troops in Haditha last Nov. 19, but said seven others at her father-in-law’s home did not. She said American troops shot and killed her husband, Rashid Abdul Hamid. They killed her father-in-law, Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali, a 77-year-old in a wheelchair, shooting him in the chest and abdomen, she said.

    Her sister-in-law, Asma, “collapsed when her husband was killed in front of her eyes,” Ms. Abdullah said. As Asma fell, she dropped her 5-month-old infant. Ms. Abdullah said she picked up the baby girl and sprinted out of the house, and when she returned, Asma was dead.

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  • From the Washington Post:

    But, he (Congressman Jack Murtha) said, “I will not excuse murder, and this is what has happened,” adding that there is “no question in my mind about it.” He reiterated a previous statement that shootings of women and children occurred “in cold blood” and that there was no firefight in which civilians were killed in a crossfire, as some Marines asserted after the event.

    “This is worse than Abu Ghraib,” he said, referring to the abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers at a prison west of Baghdad that, when revealed in spring 2004, became a major setback for the U.S. effort in Iraq.

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  • New site for NoTxt. This will be where to keep current on what’s going on over there.

    Here.

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  • From the BBC:

    And the correspondent was also keen to get his views on fashion issues.

    “Long skirts,” Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said. “As if they were going to church.”

    But then he added a little later: “Well, about skirts, if she’s got good legs then a bit shorter. But if she’s got bad legs best to have a long skirt.”

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  • From The Spectrum:

    My life, though, is about to get a lot easier. The Daily News finally has a “real” photographer on staff.

    A month after I introduced you to our new-look reporting staff, I’m happy – thrilled, actually – to introduce you to Garrett Davis, who has more photography talent in his right index finger than I have in my entire body.

    Just look at his photo on this page. The one of the American flag on the rooftop at Steve Giger Auto Sales. Cool, huh?

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  • In the Belly of the Green Bird : The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq

    In the Belly of the Green Bird; The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq, by Nir Rosen.
    [rating:4/5]

    Nir Rosen’s book gives us something I hadn’t seen much before- the view of an occupied Iraq from the Arabic point of view:

    A nervous soldier asked me to go explain the situation to the bespectacled staff sergeant, who had been attempting to calm the situation by telling the demonstrators, who did not speak English, that the U.S. patrol meant no harm. He finally lost his temper when and Iraqi told him gently, “You must go.”

    “I have the weapons,” the sergeant said. “You back off.”

    “Let’s get the fuck out!” one marine shouted to another, as the tension increased. I was certain that a shove, a tossed stone, or a shot fired could have provoked a massacre and turned the city violently against the American occupation. Finally, the marines retreated cautiously around a corner, as the worshipers were held back by their own men. Women peered at the marines from behind cracked open doors and children waved to them and gave them a thumbs-up.

    Rosen, a Turk, is able to travel and speak with the Iraqi people, imams, and fighters, in a way that I have not seen anywhere else. He carefully details the change in Iraq from the heady liberation, the growth of the insurgency, and today’s sectarian strife:

    Haidar was the father or two children and a frail man, with an attenuated body made even smaller by the immense turban he wore that pressed down on his large ears. Wide eyes and a long nose protruded from his long, thin face, made longer by a beard. In Moqtada’s prison, he was chained to a column and beaten. He claims he was also tortured with electric shocks. Haidar’s forehead is scarred because his keepers bashed it into a column. He claims there were about thirty-five detainees in the prison, including a twelve-year-old accused of homosexuality and a fourteen-year-old who stole money.

    Haidar was finally released after his face was broadcast on TV as a missing person and representatives from the seminary pressured Moqtada’s office. His true “crime” had been some public statements blaming Moqtada’s men for a murder back in April 2003.

    As a westerner, it did get hard keeping track of who is who. Rosen interviews so many key figures that it’s often an effort to keep up. But it’s so worthwhile. His is one missing viewpoint in most American minds.

    My last night I sat with my friends on Sandra, my favorite fresh fruit juice and ice cream place, happy that the owner still recognized me and remembered my usual drink, a strawberry and banana milkshake. One friend, a Sunni, confided to me that things had been much better under Saddam. Another friend was annoyed that Iraqis could be celebrating Eid and ignoring the horror all around them. Yet, he said, “They could level all of Baghdad and it would still be better than Saddam. At least we have hope.”

    A few weeks later the same friend e-mailed me in despair: “I’m living here in the middle of shit, a civil war will happen I’m sure of it… You can’t be comfortable talking with a man until you know if he is Shia or Sunni…People don’t trust each other…To be clear, now Shia are Iranians for the Sunni, and Sunni are Salafi terrorists for the Shia. We have a civil war here; it is only a matter of time, and some peppers to provoke it.”

    In the Belly of the Green Bird; The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq, by Nir Rosen. Grade: B

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  • From the New York Times Magazine:

    When I asked Anderson about Sunn0)))’s stage theatrics, his response was almost Warholian in its mastery of spin, laying claim to absolute sincerity while playfully allowing that a certain degree of camp might be involved. What about the robes? I asked. Anderson frowned. “The robe makes it easier for me, personally, just to forget about the audience and concentrate on what’s going on onstage — the chemistry, the tones, the sounds.” What about the fog machines? “The idea is that this is a ritual, somehow: not a ‘gig,’ not a concert, but a sort of invocation. That shifts the expectations of the audience.” What about the final track on “Black One,” the band’s breakout 2005 album, for which one guest vocalist, the legendary “suicidal metal” recluse known only as Malefic, supposedly recorded his vocals while sealed inside a coffin? This, finally, prompted Anderson to smile.

    “That was about capturing a certain kind of claustrophobic, isolated tone. There was actually a hearse parked outside the studio — a Cadillac hearse, painted purple — that belonged to the studio owner. So, we’re like, well of course we have to put the coffin in the hearse! So we actually put contact mikes inside the hearse, and inside the coffin and on top of it, and shut the lid. Malefic’s a tall, lanky guy, and he didn’t really fit inside too well. Eventually he started feeling claustrophobic, and that’s how we got the tone we wanted. There are outtakes of him knocking on the lid, saying: ‘O.K., I’m done! Let me out!’ ” Might that not qualify as tongue-in-cheek? I asked. “Tone first,” Anderson said, holding up a finger. “What this group’s about is tone.” He watched me closely for a moment, then his smile suddenly widened. “I love metal,” he said, as if confessing a closely guarded secret.

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  • From Scott Anderson (photos by Eugene Richards/VII), New York Times Magazine:

    Norris, too, had come to understand that his presence was not appreciated, or worse. His officers, he told me, “were always drumming into us: ‘Hearts-and-minds, hearts-and-minds. We’ve got to win these people over.”‘ He gave a laugh. “These people just wanted us dead.”

    Here.

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