Two previous articles on this site (Innocently Informing State Terrorism: Journalism, Knowledge, and Counterinsurgency, and Human Terrain System Under Investigation: HTS Link to JIEDDO & US Death Squads) dealt with the figure of Michael Furlong and what some claim was a “rogue” program of extrajudicial execution.
Here, Ishtar Enana, an Iraqi writer (blog: غار عشتار, Twitter) has posted lengthy commentaries based on research concerning private military contractors and their operations, with a lot of it picking up on the trail of Mike Furlong, but telling a story that is much larger than that of a single individual. Anthropology readers should take note of section 4 below, for an Iraqi view of anthropologists as spies. Rather than leave this piece obscured in the comments section, I asked Ishtar for permission to post this on the front page of this site. The following is the guest article.
By: ishtarenana
1- In 2002, the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board (DSB) conducted a “Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism,” portions of which were leaked to the Federation of American Scientists. According to the document, the “War on Terror” constitutes a “committed, resourceful and globally dispersed adversary with strategic reach,” which will require the US to engage in a “long, at times violent, and borderless war.” As the Asia Times described it, this document lays out a blueprint for the US to “fight fire with fire.” Many of the “proposals appear to push the military into territory that traditionally has been the domain of the CIA, raising questions about whether such missions would be subject to the same legal restraints imposed on CIA activities.” According to the Chairman of the DSB, “The CIA executes the plans but they use Department of Defense assets.” Specifically, the plan “recommends the creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception. For example, the Pentagon and CIA would work together to increase human intelligence (HUMINT) forward/operational presence and to deploy new clandestine technical capabilities.” The purpose of P2OG would be in “stimulating reactions’ among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, meaning it would prod terrorist cells into action, thus exposing them to ‘quick-response’ attacks by US forces. In other words, “commit terror to incite terror, in order to react to terror.” (*)
2- To implement this plan, the following were needed:
a- Disinformation and Psyops operatives. Among others: media and communications contractors;
b- An army of local informants (HUMINT); and,
c- Former Special Forces and CIA contractors or individuals.
3- Also to facilitate covert operations, they identified the need for hand-picked US ambassadors and military commanders “for the targeted country” who have links and experience in these “black,” shadowy operations. For example, in Iraq they sent special forces commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal(1) to work there from 2003-2008, with Negroponte (2) from 2004-2005 when hundreds of “unidentified” Iraqi slain bodies started to show up every day, also witnessing an escalation of false flag operations involving explosions in places crowded with civilians, i.e. markets, schools, hospitals etc. At that time, the Pentagon contracted the same companies and individuals of past scandals in Latin America, who worked along with Negroponte there. Men like Duane Claridge (3) and Furlong.
After it was said that Iraq had been pacified, the same people where transferred to Afghanistan minus Negroponte. McChrystal is now the General Commander there, with Furlong and Claridge.
Now during the 9 years of Afghan war, we have not heard of Afghan civilians being targeted by Taliban. But, astonishingly, as soon as MacChrystal arrived in 2009, we began to hear of such incidents.(4)
Patrick Martin wrote,
One significant fact referred to by the Times is that the operations directed by Furlong “seemed to accelerate in the summer of 2009,” the period when Gen. Stanley McChrystal arrived to take command of US and NATO military operations in Afghanistan. McChrystal was previously the head of all US military Special Operations, and ran the assassination squads in Iraq which played an enormous role in the so-called “surge” of 2007-2008, when hundreds of Iraqi nationalists and militants opposed to the US occupation were hunted down by US Special Forces and murdered.- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/hits-m16.shtml
4- Media corporations are very much involved in covert operations under the pretext of “information gathering”. In fact Furlong has been working thru his own company International Media Ventures (5). Here, Media is the other name for the simpler “spying”. Also anthropologists embedded with the army are better called “spies”. Remember, that colonialism, in our region, was always preceded by the so called “Orientalists” who were mostly social scientists and anthropologists.
5- Furlong worked in implementing his venture in Afghanistan with two corporations: one is his own IMV, the other is AISC (6) which has Claridge, a former CIA officer on its payroll. AISC’s director is Mike Taylor who is a former Special Forces officer.
6- Who is Claridge? He worked with Negroponte in Honduras, then worked with another shadowy former general of Special Forces, Wayne Downing (also was on the board of Committee for the Liberation of Iraq)(7), in training the troops of Ahmed Chalabi with the generous financing of the U.S. Congress’ “Iraq Liberation Act”. He collaborated with Chalabi, Michael Ledeen, and Alan Wolf (8) to produce the fake Nigerian document of alleged purchase of yellow cake. All of these men- minus Chalabi- were involved with Iran-contra.
7- Furlong also worked for SAIC (9)(10), a spying company, under the pretext of media, communications and information gathering. It was the contractor which was assigned to establish “independent” Iraqi TV and newspapers, financed by the Pentagon. Furlong was in charge of this operation. Before that, SAIC won a $282 million contract to supervise the last phase of the “trailblazer” program which is a “Digital Network Intelligence” system, intended to analyze data carried on computer networks. Project participants included Boeing, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Booz Allen Hamilton. SAIC was involved also in the “spate of hoax anthrax mailings.”
8- Before the invasion of Iraq, SAIC was in charge of the Iraqi puppets, Chalabi et al. The company won a $33 million contract with the Pentagon to “take care” of the 150 puppets who would form the new Iraqi government. They were put on the payroll of the company “to hide the direct Pentagon financing”. SAIC rented offices in a building called the “Taylor building” in Crystal City in Virginia, were they lived and “worked.” According to the contract, the company was to put the puppets on a plane and fly them to Iraq after the invasion. It did and they were installed in a “reconstruction” facade called the “IRDC”. (11)
9- In point “7″ there is mention of Booz Allen Hamilton (12). In 2003 Furlong, after he had failed in running SAIC’s project of the new Iraq TV and media, left the company and joined Booz Allen, part of what is otherwise called “the shadow intelligence community”. It has 1000 former CIA officers, and another 10,000 working for the company.
10- The head of BAH is James Woolsey, former director of CIA. He was also on the board of the “Committee for the Liberation of Iraq” formed after the Iraq Liberation Act, where Chalabi was the center of attraction.
Now you have all the threads connected: CIA-special forces- Mercenaries – information gathering- surveillance – spying – assassinations. And the same names reappear in this matrix: Woolsey, Furlong, Claridge, Negroponte, MacChrystal, Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC.
11- Behind all those, the main players are the Special Forces. Why? This will lead to the training of death squads and false flag covert operations. What else will Special Forces do in a war? (13)
12- The media “meaning: disinformation” plays the second important role after the special forces. Disinformation is much needed to brainwash the people as to the real goals of these false flag operations.
Footnotes
(*)http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9447
1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal
2-http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_D._Negroponte
3-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Clarridge
4- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6861594.html
7-http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55417-2001Nov19
8- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104×5128629
9-http://www.corpwatch.org/section.php?id=17
10-http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7892
11-http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040704/news_mz1b4nation.html
12-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton
13-http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,020805_Masters_Chaos,00.html
By :ishtarenana, Iraqi writer
1- In 2002, the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board (DSB) conducted a “Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism,” portions of which were leaked to the Federation of American Scientists. According to the document, the “War on Terror” constitutes a “committed, resourceful and globally dispersed adversary with strategic reach,” which will require the US to engage in a “long, at times violent, and borderless war.” As the Asia Times described it, this document lays out a blueprint for the US to “fight fire with fire.” Many of the “proposals appear to push the military into territory that traditionally has been the domain of the CIA, raising questions about whether such missions would be subject to the same legal restraints imposed on CIA activities.” According to the Chairman of the DSB, “The CIA executes the plans but they use Department of Defense assets.”Specifically, the plan “recommends the creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception. For example, the Pentagon and CIA would work together to increase human intelligence (HUMINT) forward/operational presence and to deploy new clandestine technical capabilities.” The purpose of P2OG would be in “stimulating reactions’ among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, meaning it would prod terrorist cells into action, thus exposing them to ‘quick-response’ attacks by US forces “. In other words, commit terror to incite terror, in order to react to terror.” (*)
2- To implement this plan, the following are needed:
a- Disinformation and Psyops operatives. Inter: media and communications contractors
b- An army of local informants HUMINT
c- Former special forces and CIA contractors or individuals.
3- Also to facilitate covert operations, there will be need for hand-picked US ambassadors, and military commanders “for the targeted country” who have links and experience in these black, shadowy operations. E.g. in Iraq they sent special forces commander Gen. Stan MacChrystal(1) to work there from 2003-2008, with Negroponte (2) from 2004-2005 when hundreds of “unidentified” Iraqi slain bodies started to show up every day, also false flags explosions of civilians crowded places i.e. markets, schools, hospitals etc. escalated. At that time, the pentagon contracted the same companies and individuals of past scandals in Latin America, who worked along with Negroponte there. Men like Duane Claridge (3) and Furlong.
After it is said that Iraq has been pacified, the same people where transferred to Afghanistan minus Negroponte. MacChrystal is now the General Commander there, with Furlong and Claridge.
Now during the 9 years of Afghan war, we have not heard of Afghan civilians being targeted by Taliban. But, astonishingly, as soon as MacChrystal arrived in 2009, we began to hear of such incidents.(4)
Patrick Martin wrote “One significant fact referred to by the Times is that the operations directed by Furlong “seemed to accelerate in the summer of 2009,” the period when Gen. Stanley McChrystal arrived to take command of US and NATO military operations in Afghanistan. McChrystal was previously the head of all US military Special Operations, and ran the assassination squads in Iraq which played an enormous role in the so-called “surge” of 2007-2008, when hundreds of Iraqi nationalists and militants opposed to the US occupation were hunted down by US Special Forces and murdered.”- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/hits-m16.shtml
4- Media corporations are very much involved in covert operations under the pretext of “information gathering”. In fact Furlong has been working thru his own company “International Media Ventures” (5). Here, Media is the other name for the simpler “spying”. Also anthropologists embedded with the army are better called “spies”. Remember, that colonialism, in our region, was always preceded by the so called “Orientlists” who were mostly, social scientists and anthropologists.
5- Furlong worked in implementing his venture in Afghanistan with two corporations: one is his own ‘IMV”, the other is AISC (6) which has Claridge , a former CIA officer on its payroll. AISC’s director is Mike Taylor who is a former Special Forces officer.
6- Who is Claridge? he worked with Negroponte in Honduras, then worked with another shadowy former general of special forces ,Wayne Downing (also was on the board of Committee for the Liberation of Iraq)(7), in training the troops of Ahmad Chalabi with the generous financing of the Congress ‘ “Iraq libration act”. He collaborated with Chalabi, Michael Lideen, and Alan Wolf (8) to produce the fake Nigerian document of alleged purchase of yellow cake. All of these men- minus Chalabi- were involved with Iran-contra.
7- Furlong also worked for SAIC (9)(10), a spying company, under the pretext of media, communications and information gathering. It was the contractor which was assigned to establish “independent” Iraqi TV and newspaper, financed by the Pentagon. Furlong was in charge of this operation. Before that, SAIC won a $282 m. to supervise the last phase of “trailblazer” program which is a “Digital Network Intelligence” system, intended to analyze data carried on computer networks. Project participants included Boeing, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Booz Allen Hamilton. SAIC was involved also in the ” spate of hoax anthrax mailings”.
8- Before the invasion of Iraq, SAIC was in charge of the “Iraqi puppets, Chalabi etal. The company won a $33 m contract with the Pentagon to “take care” of the 150 puppets who will form the new iraqi government. They were put on the payroll of the company “to hide the direct Pentagon financing”. SAIC hired offices in a building called “Taylor building” in Crystal city in North Virginia, were they lived and “worked” , According to the contract, the company was to put the puppets on a plane and fly them to Iraq after the invasion. It did and they were installed in a “reconstruction” facade called “IRDC”. (11)
9- In point “7″ there is mention of BOOZ Allen Hamilton (12). In 2003 Furlong, after he had failed in running SAIC’s project of the new Iraq TV and media, he left the company and joined Booz Allen, which is otherwise called “the shadow intelligence community”. It has 1000 former CIA officers, and another 10,000 working for the company.
10- Head of BA is James Woolsey, former director of CIA. He was also on board of ” Committee for the Liberation of Iraq” formed after the Iraq Liberation Act, where Chalabi was the center of attraction.
Now you have all the threads connected: CIA-special forces- Mercenaries – information gathering- surveillance- spying – assassinations. And the same names reappear in this matrix: Woolsey, Furlong, Claridge, Negroponte, MacChrystal, Booz Allen, SAIC.
11- Behind all those, the main players are the Special Forces. Why? This will lead to the training of death squads and false flag covert operations. What else will Special Forces do in a war? (13)
12- The media “meaning: disinformation” plays the second important role after the special forces. Disinformation is much needed to brainwash the people as to the real goals of these false flag operations.
++++
Footnotes
————
(*)http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9447
1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal
2-http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_D._Negroponte
3-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Clarridge
4- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6861594.html
5-http://www.imediav.com/
6-http://www.aisc-corp.com/
7-http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55417-2001Nov19
8- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104×5128629
9-http://www.corpwatch.org/section.php?id=17
10-http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7892
11-http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040704/news_mz1b4nation.html
12-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton
13-http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,020805_Masters_Chaos,00.html
Maximilian Forte
My apologies if any spam makes it through here, or, if any legitimate messages get accidentally deleted with a mass of spam. It seems that this article is the next target of choice for the spammers, with roughly 20 new spam messages every 5 minutes now. Not having any idea of how or why the spam is generated, I cannot say that this article is being deliberately targeted because of its content.
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Bob Bateman
Max,
This “article” is truly wack. It’s at about the level of the query my translators (in Iraq) once posed to me. “Is it true that Bill Clinton’s mother was from Mosul?” (Yea, seriously. And these were, 100%, college-educated upper-middle-class Iraqis.)
But I’m tired (I mean literally). Send me an e-mail, to my “real” address (which you should have), and give me your phone, and I’ll Skype you. I’m in a different time-zone from you now, so it might require some coordination. But there is so much hoo-ha in this one that I actually think that it’s worth time to point it out.
This thing is pure “Conspiracies are us” stuff. Seriously.
Bob
Maximilian Forte
No, I won’t be doing that, sorry, and thanks for the invitation — but you are inviting someone other than the author. If you have something to say to this guest author, you will have to say it here. Since the readership of this site is not a continuous one, you will also need to post a full disclosure statement before your remarks.
Bob Bateman
I’ll try to get to that later. For now, for “full disclosure”
Hello everyone. I am Bob Bateman. I am an officer in the US Army, and a writer, and a historian. I write for, among others, The Nation, Mother Jones, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Journal of Military History, and most of the professional military journals of the United States military as well as most of the military history magazines one sees in the US. I do not speak for the Army, but write in my own name, so blame me if you disagree with me. Blackwater (one of the contractors mentioned) almost killed me, so I am no friend to the idea of private military contractors. http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/eedition/chi-oped1012contractoroct12,0,2451606.story
Sufficient Max?
Maximilian Forte
You said you wanted to debunk the post, and now that new readers, or those who only read this piece know from whom the criticisms come, please feel free to fire away. I will also invite the author, one of your Iraqi victims, to come back at you.
Jérémy
I think that a fuller disclosure of Bateman-the-Propagandist should also include the following :
https://zeroanthropology.net/2009/03/14/lt-col-bob-bateman-apologizes-for-the-future/#comment-6202
If Mr. Bateman feels like “debunking”, he may want to start there.
His calling the above article “wack” without giving a single pertinent argument, along with his ridiculously americano-centric and pointless anecdot are not really surprising, and, to stay on the intellectual level he has set (sorry for that), easily recognizable as the writings of a piece of shit.
ishtar enana
Well, Mr. Bateman,
You have not pinpointed the conspiracy thing in this article. Just show me where I have gone wrong. All the information are derived from well known sources , and all I did was connecting the dots.
ishtar enana
Mr. Bateman,
I was very much impressed by your “full disclosure”. But when I went to the cited link, I was perplexed and baffled by this paragraph:
(The first time it happened was in the spring of 2005. For various reasons, none of which bear repeating, I was moving through downtown Baghdad in an unmarked civilian sedan. I was with two other men, but they had the native look, while I was in my uniform, hunched in the back seat and partially covered by a blanket, hoping that the curtains on the window were enough to conceal my incongruous presence, not to mention my weapons. It was not the normal manner in which an Army infantry major moved around the city, but it was what the situation called for, so there I was.)
I wonder why “an officer and a gentleman” – all in one- should travel in an unmarked civilian sedan, with two native looking men, while you disgraced your uniform by hunching in the back seat covered by a blanket!!
Mostly, you were on one of two missions:
Either,
1- going on some black covert operation, which I mentioned in my article. That was the year 2005 with Negroponte there and full flare of death squads. This is why “two native looking men” were needed.
or
2- you were escorted to a brothel outside the green zone. I have written about 15 articles on Iraqi women trafficking for the US troops in military bases in Iraq and outside.
Now come clean and tell us which was your mission?
RYP
Max,
You seriously lower the quality of debate by giving “ishtar” a soapbox for his “research”.
I finally read his sillyness on his arabic website. I would have thought that as an academic you would have standards for the gathering and publishing of information. You clearly don’t by promoting inventive fiction writers as providing ‘lengthy commentaries based on research “.
He can’t even tell the difference between my writing a book about Blackwater vs alleging that I worked for them. With that cataclysmic failure in just basic reading perception you would do better to refer him for a job at the North Korean News Agency:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/
More Poems Praising Kim Il Sung Discovered
Pyongyang, March 23 (KCNA) — Eight pieces of poems and songs created during the anti-Japanese armed struggle in praise of President Kim Il Sung have newly been discovered by the Juche Literature Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
They, gathered in Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces of China, are “Paektu, Famous Mountain”, “Lionhearted General”, “News of Victory”, “Let’s Send Them to General”, “Led by General”, “This Is the Only Way Out”, “Melody” and “Let’s Fight Bravely”.
The pieces represent the noble traits of the President, a great man, comparing them with the spirit and dignified features of Mt. Paektu, and praise him, who was successfully leading the anti-Japanese armed struggle, as a lionhearted general of Korea.
They also vividly reflect public feelings at that time — deep reverence for the President, a legendary hero of the anti-Japanese armed struggle who can liberate Korea.
They are valued as precious heritages which enrich the literary treasure of the anti-Japanese revolution.
So far the institute has discovered and ascertained several dozen pieces of poems, songs and revolutionary narratives created and disseminated among people in praise of the President in vast areas along the shore of the River Amnok and in northeast China with Mt. Paektu as the centre in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Copyright (C) KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved.
Jérémy
Ishtar certainly does not need me to do that, but, sorry, I can’t resist the temptation :
RYP:
Hum. Let us see, RYP’s own webpage states :
Source: http://www.comebackalive.com/site3.php?page_id=8
And the translation I get with google from the blogpost by ishtar about RYP is :
Source : http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fishtar-enana.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F03%2Fblog-post_16.html
What was that point about cataclysm again ? (or people not wearing enough hats maybe)
I, for one, am still waiting for some facts, or at least some backed-up points relevant to the above article.
So Max, yes indeed it seems that some spam made it through. (mine included)
Maximilian Forte
(sorry for being absent for a few days, right now is the busiest time of year on my campus)
RYP — I can’t say “Robert” anymore since I seem to be arguing with two Roberts — I am going to second what Jérémy says. Aside from the fact that your own entanglements with the military and intelligence community, working shoulder to shoulder with them on certain projects, compromises any claim to independence on your part (it doesn’t change the fact that I respect your written work, I am just not blind to the deals you have apparently been making), it seems that you have either misunderstood Ishtar’s words or taken them out of context or both.
I worked with Exxon. I worked at Air Canada. I worked for Century 21 Real Estate.
(By the way, none of that is true about myself.) Anyone can see how in our daily use of terms such as with, at, and for, can connote the same thing: that I was somehow employed by these agencies. They do not even imply a sense of partnership, without further qualification.
Now here is something that is true about myself: I worked with the Carib Community in Trinidad. Does it mean I worked for them? Not exactly, because if one understands who the speaker is (an anthropologist), and the context (“fieldwork”), and that many anthropologists use these terms to indicate that they conducted research in a particular community (it’s less paternalistic, intrusive, and domineering than saying “I studied the Caribs”) — then one should understand that “working with” is not the same as “working for.”
However, I also did advocacy work for the Carib Community. Now I can say I worked with and worked for (but not for a salary), and they can be separate, or they can be the same thing. I wrote a book about them. I worked with them. I also worked for them.
———————–
That aside, this is a blog, not an academic journal. That means that what we do here is always in draft format (mostly…except for some articles that we reproduce, having been published elsewhere already). Blogging, if one understands it, is about breaking the norms and conventions of the professional publishing industry — all works here are works in progress, everything is an attempt, the peer review is crowd sourced, and the peer review comes after the fact of publication.
No apologies here, I do this because I like it and would not have it any other way. It’s also important for me to bring attention to what an Iraqi fellow blogger and researcher is doing, who normally writes in Arabic, because Iraqis and Afghans are those we hear from the least in our public debates on this side of the world.
———————–
Feel free to challenge Ishtar on the facts…which you have still not done, by the way.
As for myself, if someone said, “Hey Max, did you know Robert Young Pelton was on the CIA payroll”, my first reaction would not be one of surprise — I would want some supporting evidence, but I would not reject the possibility in advance. Now, I would reject the possibility even less. You actively chose a military partnership, then stood back and pretended innocence when you discovered the military was doing what the military does. And this after all of your exposure to us, and HTS, and our arguments about feeding the fucking devil. You still have not produced a viable or credible response on this point. So if someone now wants to add: RYP was paid by Blackwater, he worked for the CIA, he supports Special Ops, etc., I am now forced to listen. That’s not my fault, it’s yours.
ishtar enana
RYP
Thank you for taking all this trouble to read my blog. It is nice to know that you read Arabic. You know, we Iraqis, from past experiences, distrust foreigners like you ,i.e. who gather information about us for the interest of an invading army. We have a name for such people. But, because I have a free mind, I would say that you fell in love with our language, as I am sure you will love the Peshtu language.
A small correction, and you may add this correction to your information gathering. Ishtar, is a name of female goddess in the ancient Iraqi mythology, no male in Iraq could be named Ishtar, but surely, your Arabic language does not take you that far .
I know you wrote a book about Blackwater, and a famous book it was. I had admired the book before I came to know about the author. In our Arabic Heritage, there is a saying “Better to hear about the maeedi than seeing him”. Now I admire the book but not the author. It happens you know. What is a Maeedi? you have to look it up.
Jérémy,
Yes, I translated that sentence as working with Blackwater. With, here means (on the same side) . From our point of view, as invaded nation, working WITH and FOR are the same. For instance, we condemn journalists who embed with the army. They wear the same fatigues, they live on the bases, they are driven in the same carriers, they get blown up by the same IED, and in the long run, they come to identify with the troops, they will eventually view Iraqis are their enemy. Would you call these journalists as working WITH or FOR the pentagon? It is the same thing in the eyes of Iraqis.
Max,
Neither Robert one nor Robert two came up with real argument. Both are trying to tarnish me, with one of them using “wack”, the other “silly”.
This is very interesting, as it shows that both of them have nothing serious to say. If you have, gentlemen, come on , bring them on, as your master had said.
Iraq
Mr. Bateman,
You have mentioned in your article :( For various reasons, none of which bear repeating,), but you have not mentioned, where or how to review these reasons? In order to have a “full scope” of the picture!
Ishtar has brought the evidences to her article! What about yours? Give us the chance to figure out, where the truth is?
You have mentioned that you had to travel by unmarked vehicle……! Was that for a military duty? I wonder weren’t there enough “Apaches” for your mission??
Oh, I am sorry; your mission was in 2005 not in 2007!
ishtar enana
Iraq,
Of course , Bateman was on a military errand , he was traveling secretly with two native looking men, in his uniform, with his “weapons” , not just one weapon, but weapons !! Although he was about to be killed by Blackwater thugs, but he could not interfere or disclose his identity! I presume he was going into a local zone to give “weapons” to some local death squad.
Is this fiction as Mr. RYP would say? Will this entitle me to work with the Koreans as he suggested?
What! you do not like Koreans, Mr. RYP? You think that “More Poems Praising Kim Il Sung Discovered” is a silly joke? You did not like the Japanese, You did not like the Chinese, You did not like the Koreans? but they are the coming masters of your world which people like you have helped collapse. You would better start learning some Chinese or Korean languages.
You think you Americans are above this idolization? If the Koreans wrote poems praising their leader, your countrymen , specially girls , swoon and cry and even kill for their own freak American idols . Generations of your seemingly respected men and women of all ages have been impersonating Elvis.
Labeeb Aliraqi
Bob,
Look at the thumps up at the end of each comment and you will know what side of the story people do fancy . Did you ask yourself why? Surly Ishtar doesn’t need me to speak for her but I just wanted to open your eyes on the fact that without any evidence against her one your position will be too weak.
Also I would like you to reveres the situation and wear the Iraqi’s shoes and tell us what your reaction would be if you had any of your family members, relatives or friends was a victim of such a ridicules action form a contractor to the army.
You are an officer who fights for his country and surly you believe in defending your country and citizens against any harm, so why you do not give the same right to the people who you have invaded their country. Ishtar does not even fighting you back with a weapon , but she is only trying to expose facts as they are so no more innocents in Iraq or any other country will be killed or hurt.
I take my hat for Ishtar as she was very specific in her article and enhanced it with some information that have been taken from well known sources , so please if you can not do the same then I would rather you to show some respect for her and all Iraqi people by ending this argument with an apologies to her. At the same time I would like to thank all American people who are exposing the facts and the real reasons behind Iraq invasion every day, they are the real one who care about both America and Iraq.
Regards
AbuHashim
RYP writes: “I finally read his sillyness on his arabic website.”
I searched the net, but I found no mention of Robert Young Pelton’s knowledge of Arabic. In fact Wikipedia states that he has no formal education, only a high school degree from Mount Douglas Senior Secondary in Victoria, B.C.
I am prepared to bet that Robert Young Pelton does not know Arabic. And for someone who claims to be a best-selling author, journalist and documentary filmmaker, he doesn’t seem to know even good English.
Now English is not my mother tongue, but the English I know tells me that the correct word
is “silliness” not “sillyness”…
Both RYP and Bob have come across as the self-appointed experts who (and they alone) know what is right and what is wrong. While they criticized both Ishtar’s writing and Max “nonacademic” approach by allowing “propaganda”, neither could submit a single shred of proof to back up their malicious attack. And as if in unison, both attack the same “academic” side of Max. Not surprising, since both seemingly worked with/for the same “honest and truthful” Blackwater, the Pentagon and the CIA. I don’t think anyone involved with the Pentagon, the CIA and their “contractors” is morally qualified to lecture us on propaganda, truthfulness, right and wrong, or honesty. That is left to honest people not war criminals!
I suggest that RYP learn English first, then change his initials to RIP and save us the headache!
RYP
Abu,
Yer buddy Abu Enema (or could you be one and the same?. I am sure Max can check the IP address source of both quotes) flatly states that I worked for Blackwater (among a number of inventions to make his case. I don’t need to be fluent in Arabic to read stupid. He/you can join the ranks of Old Blue in adding nothing to the debate but internet flatulence. His need to wax poetic on my C&P from the North Korea propaganda machine and link me to Bateman is pretty much all you need to see how his keen analytic mind works.
Max’s site is breath of fresh air in the debate of social science being used in lethal activity. I don’t agree with many of positions but he does not polarize, he unfairly characterize but within his range of perception and knowledge.
My critique on your initial post is solely focused on giving an internet reach around to a foreign blogger who has no fact checking or reading comprehension standards. Kinda like letting the drunk guy drive the tour bus because he has a chauffer’s hat on. There is a difference between opinion born of anger vs experience. The debate by clearly separating those who support invent vs those support truth. If its important to inject or dissect rumor, fables and perceptions, make sure they are presented as such.
My credentials are not academic they are experience based and my history is clearly documented in numerous legitimate web sites, newspapers, magazines and documentaries. So when you invent things and assert them as fact you cross a line just like Old Blue did. He scuttled like a scalded cat and continues to invest a questionable amount of time posting under aliases hoping to find like minded morons to back him up his conspiracy theories. He can’t. You won’t either.
Some suggestions for productive debate. Use facts to support your opinions. Don’t add quotes if they aren’t quotes. Don’t group people you are unrelated or irrelevant to each other. And best of all be prepared to back up your claims.
Your comment:
“Not surprising, since both seemingly worked with/for the same “honest and truthful” Blackwater, the Pentagon and the CIA. I don’t think anyone involved with the Pentagon, the CIA and their “contractors” is morally qualified to lecture us on propaganda, truthfulness, right and wrong, or honesty. That is left to honest people not war criminals!”
Please provide proof of your assertions (research is usually a good first step) and email them to ryp@comebackalive.com with your home address and contact info. All of my contact info is easily accessible. I have ocean front real estate in Afghanistan I want to sell you
thanks,
RYP
RYP
One addition. Max you seem to be tipping to the conspiracy side since you state you are inclined to believe gossip that is not based in fact. I (and I hope your students) find that disturbing. You were given an advanced college degree based on……your ability to believe what you want to hear? :))
Let me state flatly for the record.
I have never been employed by the CIA, The Pentagon or Blackwater. I suppose its in vogue to toss in the Masons, the Mossad or “The Army of Northern Virginia” Please feel free to include a comprehensive list of other conspiracy based theories that I must refute on your blog.
IraqSlogger was a subscription service that had many subscribers, AfPax was to be another version but more robust. IraqSlogger had thousands of subscribers, AfPax never had a paying customer.
But the odd thing is that you already knew that (I am Canadian by birth) and I am pretty sure you will not retract or even debate the idea that some of us can have a need to change the system and add different thinking to the same old problems.
I am used to morons like the folks who sometimes land here here but I will say you have damaged your credibility you had as an academic by promoting clear falsehoods along with well thought out research. Your excuse for lax standards of truth by saying this is blog is a convenient way to dodge responsibility. You took great pleasure in skewering some people for hyperbole and lying but you let others off and in this case you support their bizarre conspiracy theories.
By the way I have done one embed in my entire life, that was with the U.S. military to write the HTS story. I make no deals with any of the rebel groups, insurgents, jihadis, warlords or terrorist groups I cover.
Maximilian Forte
Robert, I am assuming they are all different persons because all of the IPs are in fact different. I welcome them, I think it is a refreshing change to see guests such as these arguing back, rather than the usual group of American militarists who gravitate to this site for whatever reason.
Let me say: I am not promoting either falsehoods or conspiracies. I am, however, promoting the speech of Iraqis who have a lot to say, who have done their own research, and promoting their right to present what they know and believe, and to be challenged. This is not an academic periodical. I don’t want to repeat everything I said above, and I still stand by it.
Bateman has vanished and never presented his challenge, just some insulting remarks. You took a similar approach, until you posted “I have never been employed by the CIA, The Pentagon or Blackwater” — which means it is up to your accusers to prove otherwise. Fine. To say that I am “inclined to believe gossip” is to misrepresent what I said. Luckily, it is above for other readers to confirm for themselves what I actually wrote.
ishtar enana
RYP
I am sure Max can check the IP addresses. But even if he will not, any one, at first glance can tell that AbuHashim’s English is better than mine. By the way, Abu is not a whole name. This is an error made by any Westerner who has had no basic knowledge about Arabs , Iraqis, and Arabic language in particular. I wonder how you had the nerve to set up the IraqSlogger website when you lack such basic information about Iraqis. No wonder the Pentagon found your services in gathering information, unsatisfactory.
Now let us discuss your contributions here. The reader who comes across this article, will be baffled by your comments, because there is no mention of you here. True, when I was tracking Mike Furlong, your name came up and wrote about you in Arabic, but when I translated the above main points of my original article, I dropped any mention of you, because your role was unimportant , it was just like any other role of any contractor in war zones, who has lost a contract. I was focusing on Furlong.
You say here “I have never been employed by the CIA, The Pentagon or Blackwater”.
But here is something else “The contractor, Robert Young Pelton, an author who writes extensively about war zones, said that the government hired him to gather information about Afghanistan and that Mr. Furlong improperly used his work. “We were providing information so they could better understand the situation in Afghanistan, and it was being used to kill people,” Mr. Pelton said.
He said that he and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive, had been hired by the military to run a public Web site to help the government gain a better understanding of a region that bedeviled them. Recently, the top military intelligence official in Afghanistan publicly said that intelligence collection was skewed too heavily toward hunting terrorists, at the expense of gaining a deeper understanding of the country.
Instead, Mr. Pelton said, millions of dollars that were supposed to go to the Web site were redirected by Mr. Furlong toward intelligence gathering for the purpose of attacking militants” http://www.captainsjournal.com/2010/03/22/contractors-tied-to-effort-to-track-and-kill-militants/
I would like you to answer these questions:
What does “hired by the military” mean?
Why would anyone in their right mind give Pelton millions of dollars to set up a web site?
http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=2783
On the other hand, you talked with Ian Masters on his show, The Daily Briefing on KPFK-FM Los Angeles.
You told him “The problem is that the general needed what we were providing, so that got sandbagged. Instead, this haphazard Jason Bourne operation flourished, and now is dead. So now what is happening is that people like Major General Flynn don’t have the basic information they need to make decisions.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-masters/doing-bad-things-with-goo_b_501929.html
So the information you provided for the military was necessary to help them make their decisions, and they did, killing my people.
Now do not tell me please, that you were so naive that you thought that the killing machine “US army” went to Iraq in order to shake hands with the Iraqis, and they needed you to make the introduction!!
ishtar enana
Why does this and only one comment need moderation?
ishtar enana
Max
Thank you for welcoming me and the other Iraqis on your website. I am glad that you could affirm that we have different IPs.
Iraq
Max,
Thank you, for giving us this room of freshly air!
Mr. PRY,
I believe in you 100%, when you said; (I have never been employed “BY” the CIA, The Pentagon or Black water.), and I will consider this is a fact! At least for the 30 or 40 upcoming years!
“BY” means; you have to sign a legal contract with these parties, in order to considered (employed by them)
But, for now, by using “BY”, you have left the door widely open for other choices! How can we determine whether or not you have worked WITH or FOR these parties? It’s all about honesty and reputation! By the way, how much you ask for them?
Please, do not get me wrong, I mean the real estate and the ocean view you’re up to sell!
Labeeb Aliraqi
Max….Thanks very much for giving us a space to have our say as an Iraqi people who still suffering form unjustified invasion to their beloved country.
RYP,
You have accused us to be one person who keep sending all these comments in different names!!! Max confirmed that the IPs were different. Who is now actually appears to be supporting the conspiracy theory?
One thing you have said in your comment and it was right. That is when you said “There is a difference between opinions born of anger vs experience” and I will leave the judgment to the readers to decied in wich side your openion is standing?
I have one last question for you about “I have ocean front real estate in Afghanistan I want to sell you “….If you realy have one….did you buy it or just took it by force ??
Regards
RYP
Max et al
So no proof to back up your previous claims or even effort to do research or fact checking would mean that my previous comments are correct and appropriate.
National origin or perspective does not permit invention or insult its Ok to support a theory that by telling the truth and engaging that I am lying and hiding? Max you seem to think its appropriate to allow an Iraqi to form opinions based on lies and dismiss proof as being simply an opportunity to simply shift their conspiracy theories without reproach.
You lower the discourse to name calling since its the only aspect that seems to be resonant in this thread. Fact:Your guests are both ignorant and badly informed so they replace insults with facts. No corrections then no more dialog because its clear where the train is going.
Homework tonight for your guests: read IraqSlogger and tell me if it isn’t the single most accurate window into that ugly war and finally ask yourself why you allow people to believe that my 20 years of published output even comes close to supporting the ridiculous atmosphere you have recently fostered. You set the standards and initially there was a hope that new ideas could foster in an intelligent environment but with the Orwellian reverse logic and McCarthyist legal standard
Open Anthro is no longer worth the minor investment of that time.
I will begin telling everyone that you work for, with, alongside the CIA and hire a chorus of Iraqis to confirm this as absolutely true. I will chime in that your strenuos denials will only viewed as further proof of your guilt.
Sadly being suspected of being a spy is not a life ending concept for an academic but a very real one for someone who roams the world’s ugly and deadly places.
Signing off
RYP
Jérémy
This is really putting the truth on its head. Your first comment was neither correct nor appropriate, unless you think that calling people “silly” because they tell the truth is correct, and that lecturing iraqi on iraqi language is appropriate.
Isthar wrote that you worked with Blackwater. Your own website says that you have been “running RPG Alley every day for four weeks WITH Blackwater in Baghdad”.
Now, unless you want to say that your “running RPG alley every day for four weeks” was some kind of leisure, it is absolutely correct to say that you WORKED with blackwater to write your book.
Then you went on saying that Ishtar was lying, and that she is not able to read. So you were the one insulting, you were the one writing insults instead of arguments. Then I guess you include yourself in the “guests” when you write the following :
Did Isthar write that you’ve been employed by blackwater ? No.
No one is forcing you to roam “deadly places”. You have that choice. Iraqis don’t. It is foreigners who invaded and turned Irak into a “deadly place”. So I suggest you stop playing the role of a victim here.
Further I think people living in invaded nations have very good reason to suspect foreigners collecting information about them are spies.
I may have misunderstood, but it seemed to me that the money for your “Afpax” “information-gathering” business was to come from the Pentagon. Is that right or wrong ?
You worked WITH blackwater in Iraq to write your book. You say it yourself. It is not Isthar’s fault if you are ill at ease with your ties to the military-industrial complex.
You are pretty much overreacting here, and you resort to insult rather than proof and arguments. It makes you look very bad. If it is because you are afraid to die, I suggest you stay home. Iraki and Afghan journalists can do the job. That is, if they have the chance not to be killed by american/NATO bullets.
But is is quite symptomatic that, on a rare occasion when we can hear (read) what iraqis have to say, some foreigners, with vested interest in information trafficking in occupied countries, suddenly appear and call them “wack” and “silly”. Even if my words don’t show that, this makes me very angry.
Maximilian Forte
Perfect, Jérémy, I really could not have put it better myself. Many thanks for posting here.
Maximilian Forte
Robert, you seem to be having a very serious problem with an open and frank airing of different views, of what we academics call “peer review,” but done in public…as it ought to be. This is not a matter for private quibbles. These charges can be made anywhere online. In this case, guests are making them here, and you are free to respond. Again, that you should have a problem, as a public figure, with the cut and thrust of public politics is very disconcerting.
Fact checking? Yes, by all means, do it. Aren’t you in fact doing so? Again, what’s the problem? I can’t check what they say with your facts, that is your job.
Finally, if you can get people to believe that I work for the CIA, I will praise you even further for your excellent writing skills and ability to persuade.
ishtar enana
RYP
You are not supposed to quit so early. I have asked you some reasonable questions in a comment which awaits moderation. Please hang on until Max moderates it. I will be very disappointed if you leave.
Imad Khadduri
It may behoove the two Bobs (Bateman and RYP), whose responses to Ishatr Enana’s expose rake of mud slinging, to attempt to argue with facts if they woulod wish to counter Ishtar’s thoroughly researched and referenced points.
Ishtar’s blog, for those who do read Arabic, has been consistently packed with quality researched and time consuimg articles on a spectrum of issues relevant to the consequences of the occupation of Iraq.
What are the two Bobs really hiding by their prompt departure? Their sense of guilt or are they in a self denial mode?
AbuHashim
Thank you Max for clarifying matters related to us being different persons.
Ishtar posted a well-researched article. She was immediately attacked by Bob 1, who called her article “wack”. When challenged to prove his point he reverted to silence and melted away…
In entered Bob 2/ RYP, who also claims to be a writer of sorts. He too went on the attack, and when some responded and demanded proof, he started accusing people of attacking him..
He stated he read what Ishtar wrote in her site, yet when I challenged his knowledge of Arabic (and English!), his reply was: “I don’t need to be fluent in Arabic to read stupid”. Now how did he know he was reading “stupid” without being fluent in the language? RYP calls our replies “internet flatulence”. He seems to be the only with flatulence.
RYP writes: “giving an internet reach around to a foreign blogger who has no fact checking or reading comprehension standards”. I smell racism here; the WASP angry that some “foreigner” dares post something that does not match the propaganda he believes in. RYP has seemingly not heard of freedom of expression and that people can be of different opinions without being enemies. He chooses to label such people as not having reading comprehension standards…
Well, he chose to exit and that is perhaps his best move. He can concentrate on writing his travel books and humouring feeble-minded Americans with his jokes on his TV programs.
I am not in the habit of replying to logorrhea, but I think RYP belongs to those people who are seemingly obsessed with the idea either that they belong to a master race, or that they are apostles of a master ideology. That bubble has long since burst.
AH
ishtar enana
I posted this comment several hours ago, but I can not tell if it is seen by everybody, because it has a note that it is awaiting moderation. I am going to re-post it , with apologies, Max.
RYP
I am sure Max can check the IP addresses. But even if he will not, any one, at first glance can tell that AbuHashim’s English is better than mine. By the way, Abu is not a whole name. This is an error made by any Westerner who has had no basic knowledge about Arabs , Iraqis, and Arabic language in particular. I wonder how you had the nerve to set up the IraqSlogger website when you lack such basic information about Iraqis. No wonder the Pentagon found your services in gathering information, unsatisfactory.
Now let us discuss your contributions here. The reader who comes across this article, will be baffled by your comments, because there is no mention of you here. True, when I was tracking Mike Furlong, your name came up and wrote about you in Arabic, but when I translated the above main points of my original article, I dropped any mention of you, because your role was unimportant , it was just like any other role of any contractor in war zones, who has lost a contract. I was focusing on Furlong.
You say here “I have never been employed by the CIA, The Pentagon or Blackwater”.
But here is something else “The contractor, Robert Young Pelton, an author who writes extensively about war zones, said that the government hired him to gather information about Afghanistan and that Mr. Furlong improperly used his work. “We were providing information so they could better understand the situation in Afghanistan, and it was being used to kill people,” Mr. Pelton said.
He said that he and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive, had been hired by the military to run a public Web site to help the government gain a better understanding of a region that bedeviled them. Recently, the top military intelligence official in Afghanistan publicly said that intelligence collection was skewed too heavily toward hunting terrorists, at the expense of gaining a deeper understanding of the country.
Instead, Mr. Pelton said, millions of dollars that were supposed to go to the Web site were redirected by Mr. Furlong toward intelligence gathering for the purpose of attacking militants” http://www.captainsjournal.com/2010/03/22/contractors-tied-to-effort-to-track-and-kill-militants/
I would like you to answer these questions:
What does “hired by the military” mean?
Why would anyone in their right mind give Pelton millions of dollars to set up a web site?
http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=2783
On the other hand, you talked with Ian Masters on his show, The Daily Briefing on KPFK-FM Los Angeles.
You told him “The problem is that the general needed what we were providing, so that got sandbagged. Instead, this haphazard Jason Bourne operation flourished, and now is dead. So now what is happening is that people like Major General Flynn don’t have the basic information they need to make decisions.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-masters/doing-bad-things-with-goo_b_501929.html
So the information you provided for the military was necessary to help them make their decisions, and they did, killing my people.
Now do not tell me please, that you were so naive that you thought that the killing machine “US army” went to Iraq in order to shake hands with the Iraqis, and they needed you to make the introduction!!
ishtar enana
Sorry Max, but I have to re-post this comment for the third time. Twice before my comment was noted with “Awaiting moderation”. At last, I have figured that that was because the comment contained links. So to test this assumption, I am posting it again minus links. In Twitter, you said that you would be off Twitter for some weeks. Are you off Zero Anth. too?
Anyway, this is the comment for the third and last time.
To RYP
Referring to AbuHashim you called him Abu which is not a whole name. This is an error made by any Westerner who has had no basic knowledge about Arabs , Iraqis, or Arabic language in particular. I wonder how you had the nerve to set up the IraqSlogger website when you lack such basic information about Iraqis. No wonder the Pentagon found your services in gathering information, unsatisfactory.
Now let us discuss your contributions here. The reader who comes across this article, will be baffled by your comments, because there is no mention of you here. True, when I was tracking Mike Furlong, your name came up and wrote about you in Arabic, but when I translated the above main points of my original article, I dropped any mention of you, because your role was unimportant , it was just like any other role of any contractor in war zones, who has lost a contract. I was focusing on Furlong.
You say here “I have never been employed by the CIA, The Pentagon or Blackwater”.
But here is something else in the story published in main media outlet on 22 March 2010 “The contractor, Robert Young Pelton, an author who writes extensively about war zones, said that the government hired him to gather information about Afghanistan and that Mr. Furlong improperly used his work. “We were providing information so they could better understand the situation in Afghanistan, and it was being used to kill people,” Mr. Pelton said.
He said that he and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive, had been hired by the military to run a public Web site to help the government gain a better understanding of a region that bedeviled them. Recently, the top military intelligence official in Afghanistan publicly said that intelligence collection was skewed too heavily toward hunting terrorists, at the expense of gaining a deeper understanding of the country.
Instead, Mr. Pelton said, millions of dollars that were supposed to go to the Web site were redirected by Mr. Furlong toward intelligence gathering for the purpose of attacking militants”
I would like you to answer these questions:
What does “hired by the military” mean?
ِ a blogger asked :”Why would anyone in their right mind give Pelton millions of dollars to set up a web site?”
On the other hand, you talked with Ian Masters on his show, The Daily Briefing on KPFK-FM Los Angeles.
You told him “The problem is that the general needed what we were providing, so that got sandbagged. Instead, this haphazard Jason Bourne operation flourished, and now is dead. So now what is happening is that people like Major General Flynn don’t have the basic information they need to make decisions.”
So the information you provided for the military was necessary to help them make their decisions, and they did, killing my people.
Now do not tell me please, that you were so naive that you thought that the killing machine “US army” went to Iraq in order to shake hands with the Iraqis, and they needed you to make the introduction!!
Maximilian Forte
I found your comments in the “spam” queue, and I approved them regardless of repetition. Incidentally, yesterday was the first time that one my comments ended up in the spam queue too! Sorry about this, it’s WordPress’ fault, and it now does this frequently even with legitimate messages. Many thanks for your posts.
Maximilian Forte
I think that today saw the first time I have been, at least implicitly, asked to ban people from commenting on my blog. This happens when finally we hear from Iraqis speaking out on matters of direct concern to them.
Never before, not when milbloggers posted here, not when people in the Pentagon posted here, not when those working for the military’s Human Terrain System posted here, not when military anthropologists posted here, not when inflamed racist American patriots posted here (sometimes all of the above are this too), not when people posted ugly accusations and smears against me here (ranging from accusations that I sodomize little boys to secretly wanting to kill all my female colleagues…you know, because I don’t indulge in ritualized patriotic war rhetoric that condemns the Taliban uniquely for what we do here in North America)…never in all of these cases has anyone suggested that they should be banned.
If Robert Young Pelton (RYP) has a problem with what is said here, he is free to post contrary facts and interpretations. At least one thing that is absolutely indisputable is that he worked with the Pentagon, with military funding. There is just no way to get beyond that fact. RYP makes Furlong into the “bad guy” (which undoubtedly he is, in very great measure), but seemingly as a cover for his own complicity. They were partners. Give me a break — this is not innuendo.
RYP
“At least one thing that is absolutely indisputable is that he worked with the Pentagon, with military funding”
really? Your methodology is suspect and your guests need to avatars with with pitchforks and torches.
Just like Jeremy’s creative assertion that I “worked” with Blackwater because I wrote a book about them? Did Woodward “work” with Nixon? Do you “work” with me to create these posts? Please.
Go read IraqSlogger, read my book (s) if the relationship is not clear then I am sure that the inventions posted here will suffice for research and facts. I think my history here has been one of earnest engagement but we are now on a do loop. Just as you have chastised others for being pedantic, thick headed, biased and ill informed, I now feel this site seeks to prove something that is false, irrelevant and predetermined by fear and ignorance not facts and open mindedness.
One thing that I should make clear Max, my not refuting something on this blog does not make it true. That is the manifestation of unbridled ego and of course internet access. :)) I will be in one of those horrible places where being considered being a spy can end your life. In this case I must thank you for creating that unwarranted suspicion even though my two decades of open publication prove otherwise. Thank you. You may now put on your tinfoil hats and whisper among yourselves.
best
RYP
Enjoy
Enjoy your conspiracy debate . I am sure it will be fertile and grow exponentially
Maximilian Forte
Sorry, I don’t understand this game, that of denying very basic facts which you yourself have already acknowledged. Are you saying that it IS disputable that you worked for the Pentagon, with military funding?
Well, alright then, let’s go:
Link #1: $1 million from General McKiernan. You said it. Do you now deny it?
Link #2: The contractor, hired by the government. Deny this?
Link #3: Hired by the military.
Link #4: YOU approached the Pentagon, to set up an information service to be used by the military.
Link #5: Involvement of former CIA and Special Ops, collecting information of value for targeted killings.
As I said, I have no idea about what game you are playing here. Your ties to the Pentagon are clear and well established. They are indisputable, and they are corroborated by your own words. You were paid by the Pentagon and provided a service to the military. You compromised your own independence. What that may cost you down the line in some other war zone has nothing to do with us, but with your own actions.
In the meantime, however, your own carelessness — and that is what it was, if we believe your assertions of innocence — in selecting such shady partners, got people killed. By your own admission:
As I said before, you got involved with killers, then claimed to be surprised that these killers do what killers do. It’s not at all credible. As someone else said above, you are not the victim here.
Jérémy
RYP, you are playing the poor little victim again, and failing at that.
You really have to pay attention. No, I didn’t assert that you worked with Blackwater because you wrote a book about them, I asserted that you worked with blackwater because YOUR OWN WEBSITE assert that you’ve been “running RPG Alley every day for four weeks with Blackwater in Baghdad”.
Please, stop putting words in people’s mouth.
Look, if an anthropologist has been hanging out with drug dealers to write a book about them, it is very fair to say that he worked with drug dealers. I am sure he wouldn’t deny that. Please.
The difference might be that there is little chance such an anthropologist would then go and find some mafia godfather to beg for money in order to fund his next research.
And parrotting Bob Bateman on the theme of “conspiracy” was certainly not your best idea ever.
ishtar enana
RYP
So you are signing in back. Marhaba wya marhaba (Arabic for welcome and welcome) Marhaba ya tair el fala (Arabic for :welcome , bird of the prairies).
As you insist every time that we visit your blog Iraqslogger, I went there and did not like it. It is Much Ado about Nothing. More like a dumpster for selective press stories and rumors that go along with guidelines of the US military propaganda.
For instance, your long listed topics include : Shia, Sunni, Kurds.. as being the natural factions of Iraqi people, which are not. They are the invention of the warring gang in Washington and their spy anthropologists. There is a “terrorism” topic, as if the war is really part of “the war on terror” as the propaganda goes; as if there really is a terror inside Iraqi other than the death squads’ financed by your military and your CIA and special forces.
In the women “topic” , you focused on “honor killing” , “circumcision” and “veil wearing” etc. as if the plight of Iraqi women is more due to their own social tradition, than your 13 years of sanctions, invasion, and occupation. You forget to report the killings, the rape, the kidnapping, the prostituting and trafficking of Iraqi women to satisfy the lusts of your psycho “heroes”.
“Heroes” is another topic in your slogger which focus on US heroes and their puppy Iraqi new police and army. As if the heroes are not every Iraqi child and adult who have survived your aerial bombing and dawn raids.
In going along with the US war disinformation, the Iraqslogger adds nothing new or enlightening about Iraq and Iraqis. It translates Arabic news stories from Iraqi newspapers which we knew from previous scandal that propaganda pieces were planted in by the US military army. I hope the slogger is not translating those same planted articles back into English!!
In my opinion, the weakest telling- all point in that website is this: The Sloggers’ main correspondent is J. Arraf who headed once the CNN bureau in Baghdad. You can judge by this, the kind of reporting it gets.
Maximilian Forte
Heroes, terrorism, and veils?
Not that we needed reminding, but freelance reporting is not necessarily free thinking and independent. These tropes are the usual, mainstream, Islamophobic and anti-Arab ones. If RYP and Eason Jordan had really wanted to do something innovative and unique, they would have gone out and collected thousands upon thousands of interviews with ordinary Iraqis, about the war and the foreign occupation, and provided the means to Iraqis opposed to the occupation to communicate with a wider, English-speaking audience.
That’s what we never had, that’s what we needed. Heroes, terrorism and veils is pure nonsense. Pelton picks his side, see my comment above yours, and makes no bones about it…except when the shit hits the fan, he wants us all to believe that, really, he is well intentioned and totally independent.
AbuHashim
I have tried many times to understand one thing: who defines terrorism and on what basis?
The US and its European allies have adamantly refused convening a conference to agree on an internationally accepted and binding definition of “terrorism”. Yet, those same states and people give themselves the right to label this group or that group terrorist in accordance with their stand within those powers. So Turkey’s Kurds are terrorists and Iraq’s Kurds are freedom fighters. Iran is a terrorist state and Iraq’s Shia are good guys. We don’t know the reason or logic, but we do know that anti-imperialists and anti-Zionists are automatically labeled terrorists.
I think the reason is simple: in such a conference or convention, state terrorism has to be defined. And when that happens or is discussed, the US and Israel (and a few other big states) will be the first ones to refuse accepting a definition, because they know they would be themselves implicated.
AbuHashim
I too visited the “notorious” site and could only find confusing pages, loaded with articles taken from here and there, and all going back to 2009. The main sources are of course US.
“honor killing” is a new thing that came after the US “liberation” of Iraqi souls from their bodies.
“circumcision” of women is alien to Iraq, Arabs and Muslims. It is an African habit which remains to be practiced even in Christianized Africa. I don’t know why it even exists on the site.
“veil wearing” is a social habit, exercised by all religions in the area. Women in some European communities wear veils; and I am not talking about nuns. The veil increased and was even forced upon women in the New Democratic Iraq.
Wikipedia defines Slogger as follows:
In the sport of cricket, a slogger refers to a batsman who plays with an attacking mindset with the intention of scoring runs on almost, if not every, delivery.
Sloggers are known for their big hitting and high strike rates, however they sometimes lack the technique of higher-class batsmen and therefore often go out for low scores through their excessive attacking.
I found this very befitting the site and its moderators!
RYP
Max,
All I am sensing here is a lack of balanced approac, convenient quoting and ignorance of terminology. Perhaps even an Orwellian approach with a dash of McCarthyism (please give me the name of a good corporation or benign information product that the DoD consumes?)
Once again, your assumptions (turned into statements for effect) means nothing except that you are predisposed to a interpretation. If your brain can’t get you past that limitation and your words can’t handle the vocabulary to deal with multi faceted concepts. Then that will be your public measure and we will leave it there. After reading John Stanton’s clips regarding HTS, I think he could benefit from tighter understanding of nomenclature as well.
The military is a tribe and they have their own language and traditions. Terms like information, intelligence, kinetic targeting (vs targeting) all have lengthy legal and operational descriptions to provide clarity. There is an overarching sense that people in the military are inherently evil because they engage in violence. That is a very, very childish view of one of the few branches of our government that puts its life on the line for principal. Yes there are both good and bad, but the U.S. military is a professional, results oriented organization. These new programs (we were not one of them because we were never contracted by the military if you are looking for a hook here) are genuine efforts to reshape conflict and many are problematic in their infancy. That’s why I spent so much time investigating the HTS because I thought it was a good idea. What I found was dysfunction, dissonance and I reported what I saw. With IraqSlogger we had not contact with what turned out to be one of our biggest subscriber but we reversed that by contacting our large potential subscribers to shape AfPax. It never happened so much of your critique has no foundation so you resort to the usual suspicions but you never really make your case, you simply refute my statements with your interpretations.
You are a deaf man at a concert complaining about the music If you truly want to explore the use of social science or even social interaction in the military then is critical to understand where the lines are so that crossing those lines is fully understand. I spend three years with contractors so I felt comfortable writing a book about it, I have rarely been with U.S. military so its an interesting learning curve to understand not just the traditional approaches but the new ones. But even with my limited exposure I have a much better grasp of terminology, legalities and purpose of all the various programs. You show your ignorance when you cut and paste corporate names as if they are evil or involved in these programs as well.
I would also say that much of the military is not fully up to speed on the intelligent management style espoused by Petraeus and some of the consultants (check out Enterra) but it is where the Pentagon is going. They want to be smarter, lighter, avoid violence and create support systems for social fabric to mend. They also continue to take out violent actors as I would hope the Canadian military would if your family or friends were threatened with death or violence from a group.
What I do sense is that you are reinvented the wheel. Focusing on areas you have little to no experience or comprehension of and you simply sound like a conspiracy nut when it comes to AfPax.
A quick scan of “expert” commentary by the torch and pitchfork crowd shows a less evolved form of the same approach. John Stanton is your best shot at retaining credibility since he is clearly opinionated but provides information not just opinions. I have not read anything of his published in a main stream U.S. publication but I can say that his stuff barely scratches the surface of the HTS problem but it is an evolving, multi-personnel program across an increasingly wide number of countries. I have fact checked some of his stuff and I would say you have to look at the source (and cause of the need for public contact) that colors much of it But I wouldn’t say the facts aren’t true, but the interpretation and overall conclusions are, like your attempts at analysis, predictable.
Targeting is an interesting term because the military uses the term to describe friendly to hostile parties who may provide effect. Kinetic targeting is the stuff you are talking about, PR is also targeting and of course selecting an audience is also targeting. HTS does not directly provide lethal targeting but all information available to the military can be used for any purpose, even your blog. Both willingly and unwillingly. Our gig was a public website available to anyone and one of biggest subscribers for IraqSlogger was the DoD but then again so was the media, NGO’s , corporations, State and gasp, academics. So the selective lens you use on AfPax is a little dirty and deliberately unfocused. As an academic and a teacher, though, shame on you for being a propagandist and conspiracy wonk. (The 60’s called and they want their naivety back.)
Your interpretation of my history (along with always amusing peanut gallery refrains) have left me realizing that you are not up to serious debate or enlightenment but simply have a comfortable shtick that you work like an aging stripper. Not too much effort involved but a lot of attempt at drama and form. And of course in front of a deliberately anonymous audience that probably gets quickly bored of the same bump and grind.
You ignore the whole and focus on the bits that work for you. That is neither research or fact checking. Its just, well, blogging isn’t it. Better known as gossip, tabloid, yellow journalism, etc
As for Abu One an Abu BoobooTwo, I sure you can do better than that if you want a multi-cultural opinion on information on conflict zones for an educated clientele. Perhaps Baghdad Bob is available to provide lockstep commentary (with of course the unintended humor) on your pontificating (Check out that avatar, Che)
We worked with a number of very articulate, brave, erudite Iraqis and IraqSlogger did exactly what you criticized us for not doing. It was the main conduit for new, regionalized and topical thinking to our clients in that ugly war. So shame on you again for being so, well, deliberately, stupid. You clearly (or deliberately) can’t understand the difference between a paid subscription site (like Stratfor, Janes, The Economist and many others) and a DoD contractor. You also don’t understand terminology and you don’t understand methodology. At least Stanton has invested time in interviewing disgruntled HTS members (but not the opposing sides opinions which would give it more depth and context.
So until you do your homework and act like a educated person then I will read your comments for fun and I apologize for the investment of my time on this site. I didn’t mean to make your pasties fall off.
ishtar enana
RYP
The devil in the details. I do not have the mood to discuss all your defense of your trade, but I think that the lesser you talk , the better for your interests, if you still want to keep your “clients” .
You are fighting here desperately, showing the ugly sides of your character: racism, ignorance, arrogance, debasing language , ranting, names calling, tantrums, and above all: lack of humor.
In your last articulate speech, the center theme was (You also don’t understand terminology and you don’t understand methodology) speaking about the professionality of US army, your chief “client” .
Thanks God we are not familiar with the terminology and methodology. What is the use of knowing the methodology of dropping those bombs on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the terminology which describes the destruction of Dresden or Fallujah. What is the use of knowing which unit in your professional army rained cluster bombs , napalms, white phosphorus, DU, or orange agent on millions of innocent civilians around the world? What is the terminology for such actions?
Thanks God for our ignorance . All I know as a citizen of a destroyed-beyond-recognition nation, and all the knowledge which I will pass on to my children and grandchildren, is that decision makers in your Administration, past and present are war criminals, and the so called professional army is nothing more than a killing machine. And in this capacity, such machine has one mission: to destroy the “enemy” , not build nations. Everyone who have helped this killing machine to implement its mission, including characters like you, is a complicit.
War crimes are war crimes . Everybody, even a child, can recognize war crimes. Only war criminals need to cling to terminology and methodology, in an attempt to get away with the crime.
Thanks God, we are ignorant of this, but at least, you have admitted , that we are cheering you up, because, judging from your rants, you are a gloomy soul, who have not had much fun lately.
AbuHashim
Ryp wrote about his gallant US army: “They want to be smarter, lighter, avoid violence and create support systems for social fabric to mend. They also continue to take out violent actors as I would hope the Canadian military would if your family or friends were threatened with death or violence from a group. ”
Now I lost eight relatives in Fallujah; all civilians who died in their homes dropped by a cowardly US pilot from tens of kilometers away. The youngest of those massacred relatives was 2 and the oldest over 70. None of those ever threatened an American or Canadian. They were asleep in their houses when they were killed. Yet the US sent its fighter-bombers to bomb the city, wiping out whole areas, and killing thousands.
Does RYP think that we, the relatives of those massacred people, have the right to “take out these violent US actors who threatened our families with death or violence”?. Or is that reserved only for the non-foreign actors, such as the US?
He accuses Max of being a propagandist, while all he wrote is propaganda. Whoever reads the above would think that Iraqis went into the US and threatened its people, and thus the Brave US
army went in to take those elements out… Some gullible Americans believed this after 9/11 and a very small groups still believes so. But I would think a well-informed journalist and writer, whose record is well known (as he keeps reminding us), would never repeat such BS.
I think Ishtar is right. Every-time RYP opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it….
Maximilian Forte
Robert, do you think that any reader will miss the obvious tricks you use? For example, you say: “you never really make your case, you simply refute my statements with your interpretations.”
No, I refute your statements here…with your own words. Did you miss all that? They were your own statements, needed reminders so that you would not continue with this foolishness of claiming you never worked for the military and never had Pentagon funding. Having been forced to concede that obvious point, you now try to switch the discussion into why the planet’s most violent institution, the Pentagon, with a budget that exceeds that of the militaries of the rest of the world combined, is actually a force for social good, and its practitioners luminaries in the realm of ethics.
So the trick is this: first deny you were paid by the Pentagon, then claim they are the best possible client a man could have. Incredibly vulgar and shallow. Read what the Iraqi posters are telling you here, and learn for a change. These are not your paid underlings, Sahib. But it seems we can expect anything from “adventure journalist” Robert Young Pelton, Colonel Blimp’s play partner, big game hunter of the twenty first century, handle bar mustache and all, the rugged information tracker, he’ll bag any prize.
Yes, you’re a “pragmatist,” RYP. So are whores. Except that you are one of these whores that the military found to be overpaid and under-delivering, and they terminated your contract. So back down on your knees you go, singing their praises, hoping they’ll take you back, knee-pads, bib, vaseline, and all.
Notice how you have set yourself up in opposition to your own statements to the media now, and how you continue with your obsequious praises for the military…because that is the side you have chosen, and you are quite happy to continue with your embed, as long as they maintain the expected payment schedule. In fact, you continue your genuflection to men in uniform here, clearly because you hope for some future embed.
I don’t copy and paste the names of corporations “as if” they were evil — I don’t use the concept of evil, to begin with, and in any event they have their proven track records and in each case I made reference to factual documentation of what they did, often according to their own admissions. Can you prove me wrong? I am challenging you directly now, daring you in fact.
While you complain that we are not understanding your pet military tribe, how despite its killing of civilians and overthrowing of governments it is not “evil”, and that information and cultural awareness is such a good idea — what you are completely blind to is that you have now become the poster child for everything critics have been saying is true of HTS: there is no innocent information gathering that can be separated from targeted assassination. You provided the information that resulted in the deaths of individuals, in extrajudicial murders, and in the death of one of your correspondents, and you don’t offer a single apology, not a word about your own responsibility here.
Foolish of me, to think that someone so irresponsible should be anything other than dishonest and self-serving. And while on the topic of strippers Robert, please pick up the underwear from around your ankles. You are free to sell your ass on the street, as you have been doing, just not on this side of the street.
PS: You write “principal” (like on a loan) when you meant to write “principle” (as in values and ethics). No apologies necessary, it is a common error among moral prostitutes, gold diggers, low class hirelings, and less developed forms of quisling.
PSS: Good move with making fun of Arab names, playing to your home crowd of American racists. You are disgusting. While making fun with your cliched pop culture references here is one for you: I liked you a lot better when you were called Archie Bunker.
Maximilian Forte
If Pelton is smart, and my expectations on this count have been drastically diminished, I would encourage him to take a breath mint before replying.
Now that his intellectual gonorrhea has been posted here, I advise everyone to wear latex gloves before touching his comments.
Labeeb Aliraqi
RYP,
Every time you post a comment you actually show your real personality. You trying to stir the pot and mix facts with fiction and factual with counterfeit. A real academic writer “which I suspect you are” wouldn’t do that.
In any battle there will be at least two armies. One will defend his land , nation, people and rights. The other one will be in the opposite side . So please try to distinguish and differentiate which one you are talking about in your quote “There is an overarching sense that people in the military are inherently evil because they engage in violence “ . Do you consider the Vietnamese good or bad when they tried to defend their country? Is dropping bombs on civilians with no weapons is not evil and it is justified according to your own terminology and methodology?? Is killing journalists from miles away just because someone suspected that their cameras are RPG is part of the army technique? Is that how the US Army desire to “be smarter, lighter, avoid violence and create support systems for social fabric to mend” .
I wish if you can tell us more about the glorious “whole” that you mentioned in your quote “You ignore the whole and focus on the bits that work for you. That is neither research or fact checking. Its just, well, blogging isn’t it. Better known as gossip, tabloid, yellow journalism, etc “ and I can assure you that every reader will recognize who is the “deaf man at a concert complaining about the music” , however, we can tell you a lot about out “ bits “ that will turn the definition of which is the whole and which are the bits.
By the way my English may be not good but I agree with Abo Hashim that yours is not better “especially for a writer with amazing history “
I think you are making the ice thinner under you feet every time you post a comment. Please do not drown quickly otherwise we will miss you a lot
Maximilian Forte
What I wonder is why Pelton had to insert himself into an article that was not even about him, making himself the object of sordid fascination, and coming in only when his Pentagon mate, Robert Bateman, went away. As someone else said above, he would have been wise to say nothing at all.
ishtar enana
Max,
For your last question,I would say this:
Either, or
1- He is contracted to play the role of BIG MOUTH, LOUDMOUTH, BLUSTERER, WINDBAG, PROPAGANDIST On this website. He is just doing his job excellently.
2- He is in between contracts, having nothing to do, but making nuisance of himself.
3- He needs some PR , so he is promoting himself to some future client. If war is launched against Iran, he will approach DoD with the proposal of setting up IranMulla website.
4-Like his professional army, he has stumbled here , but does not have an exit strategy.
Anyway, I call to show him some mercy: He is at his weakest at the moment; We all know that insults are the weapon of the weak, so the more he insults, the more he is going down.
Maximilian Forte
Excellent, Ishtar, I think your analysis is completely right.
ishtar enana
Thank you Max,
I truly feel sorry for him, I think we should help him with an exit strategy.
AbuHashim
Perhaps we can give him a ball and send him outside to play with his friends?
Labeeb Aliraqi
Abo Hashim,
This will confirm Ishtar’s assumption number 2 and RYP does have lots of time between contracts . And as we say “if you have nothing to do….go and play with your balls”
Regards
ishtar enana
Well, gentlemen, I was thinking of a less drastic measure, like closing comments on this topic, if Max would agree. After all, it is not a fair battle , with RYP crouching alone against all of us. Have some compassion for the languished.
Iraq
I agree with Ishtar,
Folks, have mercy! Give him the chance to take care of his wounds!
Maximilian Forte
I also agree. Once more an article that raises substantive issues becomes the focus of disruption by amoral, parasitic militarists who neither challenge what was presented, nor present a viable, intelligent alternative. Instead, they insist on making themselves the focus of the story, which is pretty telling: it must mean that the article contained a lot that they read as a condemnation of themselves. They should reflect on that, if they possess such capacities.
Pelton makes fun of those he thinks belong in the 1960s — and from which decade did the last military enchantment with counterinsurgency come from? when was the last time academics were recruited to provide information for counterinsurgency? These great, innovative, future-oriented gurus whose only skill lies in recycling and repeating the past, with the occasional use of new jargon. But wait, Pelton thinks the military is a noble institution, because within the overall killing machine you can find some thinking types, who come up with wonderfully new humanitarian ideas, like better conditions of imprisonment for their captive populations, while their profit-generating blood sport continues unabated. Pelton couldn’t care less whose life he puts on the line, as long as he can cash in from this replay of The Great Game.
If I am in the 1960s, that still puts me about 70 years ahead of Pelton, colonial adventure seeker in this newest Scramble. Watch his poses, his hats, like some character outfitted by Banana Republic, cute racist epithets always at the ready. Tell me if you don’t recognize Pelton in this photograph: http://www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/focus/images/6.1-B28a.jpg
More likely I am 470 years ahead of Pelton, stuck in his blood-stained fantasy-scape of adventure on the colonial frontier, raking in the cash, while also performing in the role of colonial scribe.
Let’s not forget Pelton’s repeated complaints about us being Orwellian, McCarthyist, and this being a “pitchfork parade” (a reference to American, pro-military, “patriot” bloggers and how they flock to excoriate the favoured enemy of the moment). All of this is rich irony, because it perfectly describes him. First, Pelton’s Orwellian move in first denying that he worked for Pentagon and was paid by them — when it is the very substance of his complaint against Furlong — and then shifting to a defense of the Pentagon, having buttered his bread generously in the past. Then comes Pelton’s McCarthyism, denouncing others as communist, flailing at anyone who refuses to accommodate themselves to the new military normal. As for the pitchfork parade, Pelton shares the worst thing in common with milbloggers: the exact same ideology, aspirations, and goals. When the milbloggers fire at Pelton they are usually too dumb to realize that they are engaging in friendly fire.
Finally, I want to warmly thank Ishtar and all her friends, you are very welcome here at any time in the future. You have been a much needed breath of fresh air on this site. I will always cheer those who fight back.
Bob Bateman
2010/04/18 at 5:03pm
Max,
Can you re-open the “Information, communications…” thread for comments. I got busy (and, at the same time, was wrestling with some carpal tunnel flair-up) and was not able to respond.
“Ishatar,” in particular, wrote, about my story in the Chicago Tribune about my getting shot at by Blackwater that I was either: “1- going on some black covert operation, which I mentioned in my article. That was the year 2005 with Negroponte there and full flare of death squads. This is why “two native looking men” were needed. or 2- you were escorted to a brothel outside the green zone. I have written about 15 articles on Iraqi women trafficking for the US troops in military bases in Iraq and outside.”
I would like the opportunity to respond on that thread. The truth, as it usually is, is more mundane than anything else. I had been working with the Iraqi Police Academy (aka, “Baghdad Police Academy”) that day and inspecting the recent problems that happened when the plumbing in some bathrooms on a higher floor broke, and flooded the classrooms below, when my ride back to my HQs (a British military force) departed without me, stranding me. Some of the civilian police trainers were heading back the same way a little later, and that particular group of police contractors usually moved in a more discreet manner than was the norm for military forces or for people like those that work for Blackwater.
Since they did not have anything but one “armored” sedan (I think it was a Volvo), they usually sent out a plain-clothes car to drive the route about 500 yards ahead, and then the Volvo, and then a trail car 500 yards back. All three cars had simple civilian walkie-talkies. The lead and the trail cars were unarmored normal sedans. The Volvo had bullet-proof glass and reinforced doors and suspesion, but that’s about all. So to keep a low profile, the police trainers wore typical Iraqi clothes, and headgear, because we would be driving “normally” in Baghdad traffic, which means obeying all the traffic laws like stop signs and the like. In order to remain within Geneva Convention Rules, I had to stay in my uniform, so I just lay flat down as best I could and pulled the curtains on the back windows shut and pulled a blanket over myself.
That’s all.
Oh, and the thing about “multiple weapons” that “Istrar” took as an indicator that I was smuggling weapons or something is also inane. All officers carry pistols, and any officer who is driving around at that time (as opposed to living on one of the bases) usually also carried a carbine.
Bob Bateman
PS- Now that I think about it, you might as well not. I’ll be on the road for the next three weeks, hopefully, providing this danged ash cloud moves on.
ishtar enana
Mr. Bateman
Thank you for taking the trouble to explain. But there is some discrepancy in your story.
The story you refer to, was dated spring 2005. The reconstruction disaster of the Iraqi Police Academy, was not discovered until end of May 2006, by the recruits.
(Complaints about the new facilities, however, began pouring in two weeks after the recruits arrived at the end of May, a Corps of Engineers official said. ) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702134_2.html
Then
(By July 2006, the company had been notified of problems with the plumbing. Parsons put the Army Corps, in effect the company’s client, in touch with the Iraqi subcontractors who actually carried out the construction, so that the Iraqis could fulfill their warranty to redress shortcomings in the work, Ms. Kuhlman said. “After we were notified by our customer of the issues, our customer worked directly with the subcontractor on the warranty work and Parsons has not been asked to provide any additional assistance on this project or with the warranty work,” Ms. Kuhlman said. But dire problems with the project were discovered in inspections in August and September 2006 by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent agency led by Stuart W. Bowen Jr. His report on the inspections severely criticized not only Parsons but also the Army Corps for oversight that the report said was so weak as to be almost nonexistent in some respects. ) http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/168/37271.html
For a Historian, do not you think that “remembering” the exact dates is important? You could not have been in Spring 2005 investigating the faulty reconstruction of the Academy.
I do not mind listening to another version of the story.
—
عشتار العراقية
http://ishtar-enana.blogspot.com
AbuHashim
I also have a question or two:
The following information can be found on the internet:
“Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Bateman is an infantryman, historian and prolific writer.”
Now why would a historian and writer be “inspecting the recent problems that happened when the plumbing in some bathrooms on a higher floor broke” in the New Police Academy? His career doesn’t indicate any experience or special knowledge in plumbing and sewage, so how come a person with such qualifications be inspecting plumbing?
He can not either belong to the Corps of Engineers because he is not technically qualified.
So why would an army historian, in uniform, be inspecting plumbing, and be left stranded by the British? And why wasn’t his ride American??
A lot of questions to which Bob Bateman will not answer because he is again on the road. Quite convenient I must say!
ishtar enana
Abu Hashim,
I suppose in this you have to ask Joe the Plumber.
AbuHashim
Is he also an American military historian?
Iraq
Mr. Bateman,
I do not really get it! Were you a plumbing contractor? Or, were you an Iraqi’s police trainer?
If you are a plumbing contractor? Would the United State of America fool the Iraqis this far, by offering them a plumber contractor to serve as police academy trainer?
Or if you were a police trainer? Would you put your life on line for a sewage problem?
ishtar enana
Iraq
You say “Would the United State of America fool the Iraqis this far, by offering them a plumber contractor to serve as police academy trainer?”
It takes all sorts of honest, hard working Americans to help rebuild the new Iraq. If you think a plumber is not fit enough to train Iraqi new police, though Joe The Plumber says on the home page of his website that he “can fix just about any problem you may encounter. Give me a call today and see what quality service is really about!”- joelaratheplumber dot com., you, Iraq, have seen nothing.
Here is an American belly dancer who was contracted by the Pentagon to rebuild new Iraq, including training Iraqi security forces.
“My name is Meena. Until a month ago, I was a professional belly dancer in Phoenix, Arizona. Oasis Café, Café Sahara, Café Istanbul, The Bacchanal, Shahrzad’s Mediterranean Grill, and The Persian Room are just a few of the places in Arizona that feature dancers, and you can count me among those dancers who have danced there!
Presently, however, I’m working as a defense contractor in the International Zone of Baghdad, Iraq (formerly the “Green Zone”). Sometimes I work with the Iraq Ministry of Defense, sometimes with NATO and in the Coalition HQ. ” = gildedserpent dot com
Do you still wonder why our New Iraq is shaking!!
AbuHashim
“Do you still wonder why our New Iraq is shaking!!”
And from the belly down!
ishtar enana
The story of Meena could have made a big headlines anywhere, but it has laid hidden in her “gilded serpent cave” , but I am good at unearthing hidden skeletons.
I can Imagine that the recruiting of Meena went as follows:
When the US army announced its SHOCK AND AWE campaign in Iraq, Meena, over the loud sound of Arabic dancing music in her cave , one night, misheard the name of the campaign and thought that it was time to join this SHAKE AND WOW tour.
When she presented her credentials to the contracting people in DoD. They read names of such places as : Sahara, Istanbul, Mediterranean, Persia etc. in addition to her description of herself as “professional” and of course, as it is a very professional army as someone here had said before, they thought that she was the prefect person for building a nation in the Middle East, as she seemed to have a thorough “professional” experience of the region.
Thus she found herself training Iraqi new army!!
You can see her photos in her new military outfit on her website mentioned in a previous comment.
Iraq
Ishtar,
I do have an idea about what you have talked about! But, I was hoping that Mr. Bateman could answer, at least, my second question! In regard butting his life in risk, because of simple matter, like a broken plumbing?
Also, I have noticed that Mr. Bateman has miss spelled Ishtar’s name twice in his comment! I must be proud of myself, as an English second language speaker, I have not missed, not even an “e”, in writing his name!
ishtar enana
Iraq,
The issue here is not that he misspelled my name twice, for this is understood, as a historian, he does not need to go back to study ancient Iraq; there was no oil then.
The issue, I think, is HOW he misspelled my name.
The first time, it was Ishatar, which rimes with Avatar, indicating that I am as alien to him as Avatar is.
The second time, it was Istrar, which indicates that I am a kind of a devil in his eyes, as he seems to be a fan of Pandaria-Wars video games.
Of course, there is the plain, simple explanation: He does not care, he does not bother about the “other”.
AbuHashim
Or perhaps he is simply “dyslexic” or maybe not smart enough.
There are all sorts of explanations and probabilities…
Labeeb Aliraqi
Bob,
To my knowledge any contractor should be called to honour his defects if he has carried any contract work and left some defects behind .
Your story left me with one conclusion that in addition to your work as a military historian you may have another gifted skills as a contractor and ended up with having some share from the police academy reconstruction contract .That is perhaps why you were there to inspect the defects in the toilets that you left behind. I think later these defects grown bigger till the shit hit the fan and the scandal was too big to be hidden “ in 2006 ”
I do not blame you Bob as I heard that the contracts in Iraq for the American’s contractor were so profitable ” get a huge money for doing nothing “ .
You would’ve saved the trouble for the people above wondering were you the plumber or not if you have mentioned this fact earlier. Now these people with the comments above are thinking that a low profile people have been sent to Iraq to work in high profile jobs” do not balme them for that…blame yourself “. Also if you have mentioned this fact to the British military force too , they would have considered it twice before they decided to leave you behind.
I’m trying to help you here Bob so you can learn form these mistakes and avoid them when you do your next contract in Afghanistan
I do not want to tell you my other conclusion if the conclusion above is wrong because It will be too gross for you.
Gents and Gals….finally…. we know now who the famous Bob the builder is
Regards
Linda
here is names of social cognitive psychologists that are doing horrible damaging human experiments for the DHS. And, then publishing books with a Gregg andrew Hurwitz who is an author and a public speaker on Mind Control!
Dr. Matthew Lieberman and Dr. Naomi Eisenberger (have been conducting horrible research experiments on un-consenting human subjects for the past 7 years! They are part of a group that has been studying the effects of abusive detention and coercive interrogation techniques. This group includes a DHS Employee named David Hollowell who is a secret service agent, and was on Pres. Bush’s detail during his last years of presidency!
This group has been deliberately destroying un-consenting individuals health and lives in order for them to develop their scientific data! And, it is true! Their scientific data is wrong!
Dr. Matthew Lieberman and Dr. Naomi Eisenberger Have made their whole careers by performing painful sensory deprivation, sensory overload, physical and psychological pressure and reverse engineered SERE tactic human experimentations on un-consenting healthy individuals ,right here ,in the United States! They are guilty of aiding the individuals that want to find a more covert way of breaking a persons will and modifying a persons behavior . They are researching different ways of breaking a person down and forcing them to cooperate . UCLA’s Dr. Matthew Lieberman and Dr. Naomi Eisenberger’s research work is the same type of research work that was highly sought after during the cold war, but no respectable good professional ever agreed to take because it violated every civil right ,law and oath that has ever been written!
These two need to be held accountable for their actions and crimes. Their victims cant find help anywhere! Their victims cant find anyone who will make Lieberman and Eisenberger stop performing these permanently disabling experiments on them. They are protected by dirty DHS security clearance letters that are passed out by the DHS employee Chaplain David Hollowell and a man named Ed Kendzierski.
Matthew Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger have showed no merci to their victims as they slowly torture them , worse than the stories you have heard from the jails of Iraq! Dr. Matthew Lieberman was Dr. Spielberger’s symposium speaker , Remember! And, Dr. Spielberger is associated with Mitchell and Jessen from the CIA interrogation torture scandals!!!!
PLEASE…keep trying to stop Dr. Matthew Lieberman and Dr. Naomi Eisenberger. Their work is fraudulent and unethical and so painful that 2 of their victims have tried to end their own lives in order to stop the pain and loss that Dr. Matthew Lieberman and Dr. Naomi Eisenberger have deliberately induced and provoked in their lives! All, to come up with their fraudulent scientific data that they have used to grow financially and create a name for themselves ,(and the name that should be given to them is Dr. Death!).
Their victims want to tell their story, but security letters are illegally in their way and stopping them from
reaching the public! Their victims are forced to live in a life that is full of torture ,loneliness ,
slow burning visceral and physical pain ,loss, poverty and without any rights, freedom or liberty!
Please, any one who can help, please leave comments or get a hold of someone who can reach us!