These are graphic...just awful....but as the site's author says:

The people in these pictures are just as important as the men and women that died on september 11th. a mother who loses her child suffers the same no matter what her nationality might be. she doesn't want a lecture on politics or religion. she wants her son back.

[comments now closed.]

[2/26/05: The comment that referenced "the next Timothy McVeigh" has been deleted.]

by TChris

Margaret Hassan, a director for Care International who was kidnapped in Iraq, has apparently been executed. A video tape showing a hooded gunman shooting her in the head was delivered to Al Jazeera.

There are 2,000 former soldiers fighting callbacks to the army. Another 110,000 are watching how it plays out.

The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000 former soldiers it has ordered back to military work, complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops.

Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan now, after they thought they were through with life on active duty.

They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up.

More than 4,000 former soldiers have been called back to active duty in the past few months alone. 2,500 were directed to attend a training course. More than 700 just didn't show. Almost 2,000 have asked for exemptions or deferments.

The resistance puts further strain on a military that has summoned reserve troops in numbers not seen since World War II and forced thousands of soldiers in Iraq to postpone their departures when their enlistment obligations ended.

Do you really think there won't be draft? The Army is down to calling members of the Individual Reserves, which is different than the National Guard reserves.

A U.S. marine is under investigation for shooting a wounded Iraqi in the head. Crooks and Liars has the video. The incident happened in Fallujah and NBC's Kevin Sites who is embedded with the troops, witnessed the incident. You can listen to his report here.

The incident occurred as a Marine battalion was taking part in a U.S.-led counteroffensive intended to secure Fallujah so national elections can go ahead in January as scheduled....The Marine battalion stormed an unidentified mosque Saturday in southern Fallujah after taking casualties from heavy sniper fire and attacks with rocket-propelled grenades. Ten insurgents were killed and five others were wounded in the mosque and an adjacent building.

The marines left the five wounded Iraqis inside the mosque. Two more groups of marines came later. One group went inside and apparently shot four of the five wounded again. They came out of the mosque and the second group went in. Here's what Sites saw:

by TChris

Having chased the "insurgents" out of Falluja, the U.S. military dropped two 500-pound bombs on Baquba, where "insurgents attacked a police station and U.S. troops at a traffic circle." Violence has spread to other cities, as well.

Earlier in the day, gunmen stormed the police station in the nearby town of Buhriz using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, police said. A gunbattle ensued and four police cars were burned, police said.

Explosions and sporadic gunfire rang out across Mosul on Monday, a day after Iraqi and U.S. troops battled to retake a police station overrun by insurgents. Violence has also spiked in Samarra and Baiji, both Sunni cities north of the capital.

by TChris

Bunnatine Greenhouse will not go gently into retirement -- much to the displeasure of the Army Corps of Engineers. Greenhouse is the Corps' contracting director, and she continues to criticize the network of "good ole boys" who funneled government funds to Halliburton to repair oil fields in Iraq, bypassing procedures that require competitive bidding.

With the bluntness and rectitude that has angered some of her superiors, she explained why she was not taking the vested retirement her commander had pointedly dangled. "When our officers don't understand that a decision is giving one company an exceptional advantage," she said, "when they don't understand that a decision doesn't protect the public trust, then it's my job to make them understand it."

In addition to questioning the $7 billion contract to repair oil fields, Greenhouse expressed displeasure that the Corps went behind her back to approve the inflated prices a Halliburton subsidiary charged for fuel that was transported to Iraq. She also questioned the extension of an expiring Halliburton contract in the Balkans, at a cost of $165 million.

Human rights groups charge that the U.S. soldiers may have committed a war crime this past Thursday by forcing fleeing civilians to return to Fallujah:

Citing several articles of the Geneva Conventions, the experts said recognized laws of war require military forces to protect civilians as refugees and forbid returning them to a combat zone.

"This is highly problematical conduct in terms of exposing people to grave danger by returning them to an area where fighting is going on," said Jordan Paust, a law professor at the University of Houston and a former Army prosecutor. James Ross, senior legal adviser to Human Rights Watch, said, "If that's what happened, it would be a war crime."

Here's what happened:

A stream of refugees, about 300 men, women and children, were detained by American soldiers as they left southern Falluja by car and on foot. The women and children were allowed to proceed. The men were tested for any residues left by the handling of explosives. All tested negative, but they were sent back.

The Pentagon has announced the U.S. has competed its takeover of Fallujah. Should we cheer? Here are the stats:

• 24 U.S. troops killed
• More than 1,000 Iraqi "insurgents" killed.
• More than 400 U.S. troops injured and flown to Germany hospitals (two planeful loads arrived today.)

Iraqi officials announced that the two most sought-after terrorists, Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, escaped.

On to Mosul Taji?

Good read on the history of Fallujah. [link via What Really Happened.]

Up until now, the studies that have been conducted of Gulf War Syndrome have focused on stress as the cause. No more. The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that $15 million will be set aside for studies that examine other causes of the disease.

Gulf War veterans have experienced undiagnosed illnesses with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance.

It is critical to determine whether toxins are the cause of the disease. A new report commissioned by the VA indicates this may be the case.

Evidence supports a probable link between exposure to neurotoxins and the development of Gulf War veterans' illnesses," according to one of the 143-page report's key findings.

"A substantial proportion of Gulf War veterans are ill with multisymptom conditions not explained by wartime stress or psychiatric illness," the report said. Research indicates that the illnesses are "neurological in character" and possibly caused by exposure to certain toxic agents such as sarin gas used by Iraq in its 1980s war against Iran or certain pesticides.

700,000 U.S. soldiers took part in Gulf War I. More than 100,000 have experienced the symptoms described above. The symptoms have been experienced by Australian, British, French and Canadian troops.

The Guardian has more details. The report is available here. The VA's media advisory (pdf) is here.

The Pentagon announced that 18 U.S. troops have been killed and 69 wounded in the battle for Fallujah.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the usual destination for seriously wounded U.S. troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, said 102 Americans arrived from Iraq in two plane loads on Thursday. They joined 125 wounded troops who arrived there from Monday to Wednesday.

The U.S. also said today that winning at Fallujah won't end the war against insurgents.

Live Pentagon press conference. There will be no body-counting. Lt. Gen. Tom Metz said the fight in Fallujah is far from over.

Casualties: Very Few
Friendly casualties: Light
Enemy casualties: Higher than expected
U.S. Casualties: about a dozen, won't state particular number.

Wounded: What we've experienced elsehwere throughout Iraqi Freedom. Won't get pinned down. The DOD will put out notices.

"Gulf War Vet Sues Army Over New Call-Up" and "Iraqi officer deserts with Fallujah battle plans." Is this a trend we will be seeing more of?