Now back to your regularly scheduled war
- A sarin gas shell was found in Iraq. The circumstances are worrying,
as it was found in a roadside bomb targeting US vehicles, which means
that it's already in the hands of the bad guys. It was a binary shell,
with precursor chemicals stored in separate tanks until detonation,
at which point the chemicals become the more deadly agent. As the
precursor chemicals are more stable than the resulting agent, this
gives the shell a much longer shelf life than the few years
that Scott Ritter said most of Iraq's weapons would be good for.
Things to take comfort in: Iraq had only
begun to develop such weapons in 1990, so after the cease-production,
inspections, and bombings, they won't have many left; One weapon
is not proof of the vast caches and recent production supposed to exist;
The saboteurs didn't lob it over the Green Zone fence, so they probably
didn't know what it was; and the soldiers who were exposed don't appear
to have been hurt.
- Here is a collection of good news in Iraq.
There are a few things on the list that don't count -- the Kurdish zones
have been largely self-governed for ten years so peace there is no surprise,
and the author excuses the US torture scandal by pointing out that Saddam
was worse -- but on the whole, it's worth reading. via Daypop.
- Ahmed Chalabi's
house has been raided by US troops investigating corruption.
The latest is that Chalabi is accused of spying for Iran.
via Google.
- Israel has been going nuts in Gaza, with the response to the bombing
of an Israeli military vehicle looking more like blind revenge than
an attempt to stop HAMAS.
If what I've read in the papers is right, Israel has been razing
entire neighbourhoods just because they're there, not targeting houses
with tunnels or sniper nests, not making way for armour too wide for
the roads, and not giving prior warning the way Israeli forces have done
since the British Occupation. In the latest news,
Israel has shelled a peaceful march and
even the US is pissed off.
Somebody should be sacked for this.
- Sergeant Samuel Provance is probably one of the bravest
soldiers in the US Army, having confirmed a coverup at Abu Ghraib
and letting his name be used after he was ordered to stay quiet.
Via Atrios.
- Speaking of brave US soldiers, Andrew Wyatt pointed me towards
the story of Captain Brian Chontosh, Corporal Armand McCormick, and Corporal Robert Kerman, who drove into an Iraqi trench after
being ambushed, launched a counterassault, and kept on going after
they ran out of ammo by picking up enemy weapons, earning a Navy Cross
for Chontosh and Silver Stars for the McCormick and Kerman.
Also earning a Navy Cross was Private First Class Joseph Perez, who charged a trench
in another incident and kept fighting after he was shot twice.
Chontosh accepted his award with with honor and humility, saying
"I was just doing my job". According to the Google headlines, Perez also earned a promotion to Lance Corporal.
- Is That Legal? notes
that
the Bush Administration may have lied to
the Supreme Court about whether it supports torture, along with
a clarification, update,
and another update: Congressman John Conyers wants
an investigation. via Atrios.
- On the domestic front, Alan Dershowitz, who has had some fame as a vocal supporter
of Israel and more recently as a proponent of torture, calls Judge Scalia
a Fascist.
- Via 4m elsewhere,
Texas revoked the status of the religion of John Adams and John Quincy Adams
because they think it's not a real religion.
- Is George Will trying to tell us something?
Posted
by Warrior Tang at May 20, 2004 07:09 PM
