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Month in Review September 2010: The Alchemy of Empire

War Watch

by Ellen Kaiser

Servicewomen Suffer Sexual Attacks

Pentagon officials revealed to a Senate hearing on Feb. 25 that servicewomen have filed 112 reports of sexual misconduct by U.S. troops over the past 18 months in the Central Command area including Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. The Denver Post, which uncovered the scandals, reports: "Women who were raped while serving in the military say they were isolated and blamed for the attacks, while the system they turned to for help has treated the men who assaulted them far more humanely."

Adding to this outrageous situation, about two dozen women at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, have reported to a local rape-crisis center that they were assaulted in 2002. An advocacy group in Connecticut informed senators at the hearing that it had received reports of 68 cases of sexual assault, mainly from servicewomen in Iraq and Kuwait.

Sweetheart Deal Goes Sour

The Pentagon has started a criminal fraud investigation of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root regarding an overcharge of at least $61 million for fuel shipped into Iraq from Kuwait. The administration has handed Dick Cheney's Halliburton Co. $3 billion in contracts to support the war and occupation in Iraq.

Protest actions against Halliburton and other Iraq war profiteers were held in 20 U.S. cities and London on Feb. 24. Another is planned for Halliburton's shareholder meeting in Houston on May 19.

Since the Iraq war began, the company has admitted that employees participated in a $6.3 million kickback deal with a Kuwaiti company; repaid the government $27.4 billion that it admittedly overcharged for food services in Iraq; halted $174.5 million in disputed government billings for other food services in Iraq and Kuwait; and been charged with racial discrimination by black employees.

Turmoil in Afghanistan

In this January's State of the Union, President Bush boasted, "As of last month, Afghanistan has a new constitution, guaranteed free elections and full participation by women." The facts tell another story.

"Nearly two months since voter registration began, less than 10 percent of about 10.5 million eligible voters have signed up, and only two percent of eligible women. No political parties have been officially recognized, [and] no electoral law has been enacted." (The Washington Post, Feb. 17, 2004)
"Bush administration officials say opium producers in Afghanistan account for more than 75 percent of the world's opium poppies. Some estimate heroin sales make up at least half of the Afghan economy, with struggling Afghan farmers relying by economic necessity on growing opium poppies." (Washington Times, Feb. 13, 2004)
Ongoing attacks are so strong that the U.S. has reworked its military tactics and plans a major offensive against rebels and Osama bin Laden this spring. (The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2004)

Israeli Wall Dispute Intensifies

"This wall is the incarnation, the embodiment, of racism and apartheid," said Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Parliament. Thousands of Palestinians staged weeklong protests of the Israeli wall throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip beginning on Feb. 23, the first day of hearings about the wall by the International Court of Justice. Israeli security forces killed two of the protesters on Feb. 26 and wounded dozens of others.

The U.N. General Assembly asked the court to rule if the wall violates international law by extending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Israel refuses to recognize the court's jurisdiction over the 450-mile wall which displaces 15 percent of the Palestinian West Bank to the Israeli side. The Israeli Supreme Court is also holding hearings into the legality of the wall.

Un-Free Speech

On Feb. 16, five peace activists were fined $200-$500 for wearing Dump Dubya buttons as they headed to a protest at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex. They were arrested at a roadblock last May and charged under an ordinance that requires a $25 permit to protest. The protesters plan to appeal.

Liberty Versus Security

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear three key civil liberties cases in April. The cases of Yaser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla challenge President Bush's authority to declare U.S. citizens "enemy combatants" and then detain them indefinitely, suspending their rights to be charged, obtain legal counsel and get a trial.

The court also will hear arguments about whether the international detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba can be treated without regard to the U.S. Constitution because they are held outside U.S. borders.

Perhaps anticipating the court's deliberations, the administration recently allowed Hamdi and Padilla to meet with lawyers for the first time since their detentions began in 2001. The administration also released three teenagers from Guantanamo Bay and announced that five British prisoners would soon be discharged.