On September 16, 2007, seventeen Iraqi civilians were driving home from work, school, play, marketing. All of them happened to make a turn onto Baghdad's Nisour Square. All of them wound up dead (with more than two dozen others wounded), murdered by panicked sissies from the American death squad known as Blackwater. Five of the sissies were indicted on manslaughter charges, brought about because one Blackwater agent (Jeremy Ridgeway) copped a deal and turned State's evidence. (Ridgeway is soon to enter the Jimmy Hoffa Zone.)
Over the New Year's weekend, all charges were dropped against the five murderers, by a George W. Bush-appointed judge by the name of Ricardo Urbina.
Amy Goodman speaks with Harper's Scott Horton.
In other events from ObamaLand:
In his January 2nd radio address, Barack Obama claimed for the first time that Al Qaeda was indeed behind the attempted destruction of Northwest Flight 253. Channeling Dick Cheney, Mr. Changin' and Hopin' said "our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred, and we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country."
The United States and British embassies have been closed in Yemen, anticipating a major military strike against the country.
New sanctions are announced against Iran, directed against businesses "linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps."
The Administration has officially rejected the 2008 United States National Intelligence Estimate which said that Iranian scientists had ended work on designing a nuclear warhead in 2003. A clear escalation of American/Israeli efforts to achieve regime change in Iran.
Over a 72-hour period beginning on New Year's Eve, the U.S. launched three separate drone missile attacks on Northern Pakistan, killing 10 people.
On December 30th, an American missile strike killed 9 Afghan civilians.
Also on December 30th, the US International Trade Commission approved new duties of 15 percent on Chinese exports of steel pipes. The previous day, the US imposed "anti-dumping" duties against steel products from China. Also imposed, a 35% tariff on Chinese tires. Beijing bitterly denounced these moves.
In addition, the Obama Adminstration announced the sale of Black Hawk helicopters and anti-missile batteries to Taiwan. Beijing again denounces the action.
