Secret video of Iraq massacre released by Wikileaks

Welcome to the true face of war.

When you start something as nightmarish as war, you open up the inevitability of atrocities, dead on all sides, the murder of innocents and the death of the souls of the perpetrators.

Wikileaks has just released video of the massacre of a dozen Iraqi civilians that shows the US military shooting civilians as sport. It is truly horrific. What sort of people can carry out such an insane cowardly act from the safety of their little cockpit screens?

The murdered men in this case include two men working for Reuters: a talented young war photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children were injured when rescuers tried to help the victims.

The Apache pilot's excuse is that the group were carrying weapons and were shooting. Yet Namir's bag, identified as weaponry, was actually his camera kit. Besides, possessing weapons is legal in Iraq. If you shot up all Americans with weapons in their home country you'd decimate the population.

The Pentagon fought to suppress the video but Wikileaks have now spread this far and wide.

The real criminals, of course, are the politicians, the arms industry and the banks that set this illegal war in motion and have made their money. It's no wonder that former Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to keep secret the fact that he's taken Iraqi oil money, and that's on top of the £2 million a year he's been given by the bank organising the pillaging of Iraq, J P Morgan. For me, this far exceeds the expenses scandal. Look on your handiwork and despair, Tony and Dubya.

For the media cheerleaders who supported the Iraq war, I'll let George Orwell have the last word:

Bullets hurt, corpses stink, men under fire are often so frightened that they wet their trousers ... A louse is a louse and a bomb is a bomb, even though the cause you are fighting for happens to be just ... If there was one thing that the British intelligentsia were committed to, it was the debunking version of war; the theory that war is all corpses and latrines and never leads to any good result. Well, the same people who in 1933 sniggered pityingly if you said that in certain circumstances you would fight for your country, in 1937 were denouncing you as a Trotsky-Fascist if you suggested that the stories in New Masses about freshly wounded men clamouring to get hack into the fighting might he exaggerated. And the Left intelligentsia made their swing over from "War is hell" to "War is glorious" not only with no sense of incongruity but almost without any intervening stage.

More at the Guardian and Independent. Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com (hat tip Nevin for the Greenwald link).

Secret video of Iraq massacre released by Wikileaks

Welcome to the true face of war.

When you start something as nightmarish as war, you open up the inevitability of atrocities, dead on all sides, the murder of innocents and the death of the souls of the perpetrators.

Wikileaks has just released video of the massacre of a dozen Iraqi civilians that shows the US military shooting civilians as sport. It is truly horrific. What sort of people can carry out such an insane cowardly act from the safety of their little cockpit screens?

The murdered men in this case include two men working for Reuters: a talented young war photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children were injured when rescuers tried to help the victims.

The Apache pilot's excuse is that the group were carrying weapons and were shooting. Yet Namir's bag, identified as weaponry, was actually his camera kit. Besides, possessing weapons is legal in Iraq. If you shot up all Americans with weapons in their home country you'd decimate the population.

The Pentagon fought to suppress the video but Wikileaks have now spread this far and wide.

The real criminals, of course, are the politicians, the arms industry and the banks that set this illegal war in motion and have made their money. It's no wonder that former Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to keep secret the fact that he's taken Iraqi oil money, and that's on top of the £2 million a year he's been given by the bank organising the pillaging of Iraq, J P Morgan. For me, this far exceeds the expenses scandal. Look on your handiwork and despair, Tony and Dubya.

For the media cheerleaders who supported the Iraq war, I'll let George Orwell have the last word:

Bullets hurt, corpses stink, men under fire are often so frightened that they wet their trousers ... A louse is a louse and a bomb is a bomb, even though the cause you are fighting for happens to be just ... If there was one thing that the British intelligentsia were committed to, it was the debunking version of war; the theory that war is all corpses and latrines and never leads to any good result. Well, the same people who in 1933 sniggered pityingly if you said that in certain circumstances you would fight for your country, in 1937 were denouncing you as a Trotsky-Fascist if you suggested that the stories in New Masses about freshly wounded men clamouring to get hack into the fighting might he exaggerated. And the Left intelligentsia made their swing over from "War is hell" to "War is glorious" not only with no sense of incongruity but almost without any intervening stage.

More at the Guardian and Independent. Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com (hat tip Nevin for the Greenwald link).

Mayor Boris Johnson seeks Madam Miaow's approval for London erection

Crikey! Well, Boris. It's big. And it's red. It certainly gets my attention. No more TV reception worries for you.

Were you trying for Tatlin's Tower, that revolutionary celebration of modernism? Only ninety-odd years too late. And I'm not sure the Bolsheviks, whose 1917 victory it was conceived to commemorate, are your cup of cha. Unless there's something you haven't told us and you were the young Philby, Burgess or Maclean of the Bullingdon Set.

You called it what? ArcelorMittal Orbit? (I wouldn't include anything that sounds like "arse", in there, Boris. That's just gagging for trouble.) Hmm, doesn't quite make the political statement or possess the street authenticity of, say, Watts Towers. But get that groovy capped M. How modern. Oh, hang on. Mittal. Surely not Lakshmi Mittal, the steel baron mysteriously promoted to billionaire status in 2002 by Tony Blair? Not a vanity project for you boys, then. Getting all that steel as a job lot, are you?

My lovely readers may be wondering why I should feel qualified to advise the Mayor so intimately on the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the 112 metre high "new artwork" built in London’s Olympic Park for the 2012 games, designed by Anish Kapoor, and unveiled on Wednesday 31st March (to be completed December 2011).

Today, London Mayor Boris Johnson asked me via a Tweet to "share my thoughts". Incredible considering Boris thinks the Chinese are incapable of original thought.

MayorOfLondon @MadamMiaow We just unveiled: http://bit.ly/d03oav What do you think? Pls RT and share your thoughts 3:44 PM Mar 31st via txt

I assumed this was a mass mail-out but, no, he really was addressing li'l ol' me. Oh, and nine others. According to a decidedly unimpressed Boriswatch:

... Boris’s newly interactive twitter account sought RTs and opinions on the contraption from the following accounts:
@creativereview
@tate
@designmuseum
@barbicancentre
@southbankcentre
@ICALondon
@RSAEvents
@royalacademy
@MadamMiaow
@culturelabel

Boriswatch then sniffily asks, " ... one left wing blogger and broadcaster (why was she singled out, anyway?)."

Search me, luv.

But gently, mind. Don't take it out on me that you weren't consulted.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, cockles and whelks, jellied eels, trouble and strife. Dunno me Arup from me Ova but I know what I like and I don't think it's the inelegant red tangle designed by computer and not even Kapoor's clever hand. Stick a track on it and turn it into a fairground ride to rival the London Eye and I might be a tad more impressed. Right now I'm hoping a band of scrap merchants cart it off in the night to suffer the same fate as the disappeared Henry Moores.

PS: It appears we'll be able to climb it for spectacular views and there will be a restaurant. If it wasn't for the fact that I'll be seeing environmental damage, Blair's Cash For Influence, slave labour allegations and an obscene level of personal wealth every time I look at the tower, I might even be tempted. As it is, look on my works, ye Mighty, and go somewhere else.

Mayor Boris Johnson seeks Madam Miaow's approval for London erection

Crikey! Well, Boris. It's big. And it's red. It certainly gets my attention. No more TV reception worries for you.

Were you trying for Tatlin's Tower, that revolutionary celebration of modernism? Only ninety-odd years too late. And I'm not sure the Bolsheviks, whose 1917 victory it was conceived to commemorate, are your cup of cha. Unless there's something you haven't told us and you were the young Philby, Burgess or Maclean of the Bullingdon Set.

You called it what? ArcelorMittal Orbit? (I wouldn't include anything that sounds like "arse", in there, Boris. That's just gagging for trouble.) Hmm, doesn't quite make the political statement or possess the street authenticity of, say, Watts Towers. But get that groovy capped M. How modern. Oh, hang on. Mittal. Surely not Lakshmi Mittal, the steel baron mysteriously promoted to billionaire status in 2002 by Tony Blair? Not a vanity project for you boys, then. Getting all that steel as a job lot, are you?

My lovely readers may be wondering why I should feel qualified to advise the Mayor so intimately on the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the 112 metre high "new artwork" built in London’s Olympic Park for the 2012 games, designed by Anish Kapoor, and unveiled on Wednesday 31st March (to be completed December 2011).

Today, London Mayor Boris Johnson asked me via a Tweet to "share my thoughts". Incredible considering Boris thinks the Chinese are incapable of original thought.

MayorOfLondon @MadamMiaow We just unveiled: http://bit.ly/d03oav What do you think? Pls RT and share your thoughts 3:44 PM Mar 31st via txt

I assumed this was a mass mail-out but, no, he really was addressing li'l ol' me. Oh, and nine others. According to a decidedly unimpressed Boriswatch:

... Boris’s newly interactive twitter account sought RTs and opinions on the contraption from the following accounts:
@creativereview
@tate
@designmuseum
@barbicancentre
@southbankcentre
@ICALondon
@RSAEvents
@royalacademy
@MadamMiaow
@culturelabel

Boriswatch then sniffily asks, " ... one left wing blogger and broadcaster (why was she singled out, anyway?)."

Search me, luv.

But gently, mind. Don't take it out on me that you weren't consulted.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, cockles and whelks, jellied eels, trouble and strife. Dunno me Arup from me Ova but I know what I like and I don't think it's the inelegant red tangle designed by computer and not even Kapoor's clever hand. Stick a track on it and turn it into a fairground ride to rival the London Eye and I might be a tad more impressed. Right now I'm hoping a band of scrap merchants cart it off in the night to suffer the same fate as the disappeared Henry Moores.

PS: It appears we'll be able to climb it for spectacular views and there will be a restaurant. If it wasn't for the fact that I'll be seeing environmental damage, Blair's Cash For Influence, slave labour allegations and an obscene level of personal wealth every time I look at the tower, I might even be tempted. As it is, look on my works, ye Mighty, and go somewhere else.

Ricky Martin helps Chinese pirates meet their death

This made me very sad.

Livin' La Vida Loca
Even Chinese pirates fall for Ricky

In honour of Ricky Martin's big announcement this week, we thought we should celebrate with our first three stories on him. This was from February 2000:

"Thirteen Chinese pirates staggered drunkenly to their deaths this week, singing a Ricky Martin song. The gang - convicted of murdering 23 crew members, were taken to the firing squad from a court in Shanwei, China. Before they left for the execution grounds, the prisoners were locked in the court room with relatives, some food and a large amount of rice wine. Half an hour later, they emerged unsteadily into the bright sunlight, red in the face and singing Ricky's 1998 World Cup theme song La Copa De La Vida ("The Cup Of Life"). Yang Jingtao, 25, led the singing, jumping up and down in his chains and singing "Go, go, go! Ole, ole, ole!"

A short time later they were all shot, in the head and the heart, by a firing squad."

From Popbitch

Ricky Martin helps Chinese pirates meet their death

This made me very sad.

Livin' La Vida Loca
Even Chinese pirates fall for Ricky

In honour of Ricky Martin's big announcement this week, we thought we should celebrate with our first three stories on him. This was from February 2000:

"Thirteen Chinese pirates staggered drunkenly to their deaths this week, singing a Ricky Martin song. The gang - convicted of murdering 23 crew members, were taken to the firing squad from a court in Shanwei, China. Before they left for the execution grounds, the prisoners were locked in the court room with relatives, some food and a large amount of rice wine. Half an hour later, they emerged unsteadily into the bright sunlight, red in the face and singing Ricky's 1998 World Cup theme song La Copa De La Vida ("The Cup Of Life"). Yang Jingtao, 25, led the singing, jumping up and down in his chains and singing "Go, go, go! Ole, ole, ole!"

A short time later they were all shot, in the head and the heart, by a firing squad."

From Popbitch