War on Iraq

Urgent: four women to be executed by Iraqi puppet regime

Torture, War on Iraq, Women
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From Amnesty International via Ilya:

IRAQ Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah (f), aged about 25
Wassan Talib (f), aged 31
Zeynab Fadhil (f), aged 25
Liqa’ Qamar (f), aged 25

The four women named above have been sentenced to death, and at least one of them is in imminent danger of execution. The president has the power to pardon them, or commute their sentences.

Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah was sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on 15 August 2005 for the murder of her uncle, his wife and three of their children in the al-Khudra’ district of Baghdad. She reportedly blamed the killings on her fiancé, who, she said, had carried them out in order to rob her uncle. Her fiancé was said to have been arrested, but Amnesty International does not know what charges, if any, have been brought against him. Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah’s death sentence was upheld on appeal, and she is facing imminent execution.

In a separate case, Wassan Talib and Zeynab Fadhil were sentenced to death by the CCCI on 31 August 2006 for the 2005 murder of several members of Iraqi security forces in the Baghdad district of Hay al-Furat. Both women denied they had been involved, and Zeynab Fadhil reportedly claimed that she was abroad at the time of the killings.

Liqa’ Qamar was sentenced to death on 6 February 2006 by the CCCI, for a kidnapping which reportedly took place in 2005. Her husband is said to have been detained and accused of the same crime. No further details are available.

All four women are held at Baghdad’s al-Kadhimiya Prison. Two have young children with them: Zeynab Fadhil her three-year-old daughter, Liqa’ Qamar her one-year-old daughter, who was born in prison.

Send your protest to Iraq’s Justice minister: Hashim al Shilbi:
head-minister@iraqi-justice.org.

Want To Get Out of Iraq? Flash Your Tits.

Feminism, War on Iraq, Women
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Military cheesecake through the ages

Shorter US military: “Torture? Okeydokey! Tits? Not so much. Unless they’re fake, that is.”

Air Force strips Playboy poser of status

By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago

SAN ANTONIO – An Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she and the Air Force said Wednesday. Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy’s February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from “extended active duty” and was also told that she was demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.

[…]

Manhart, a 30-year-old mother of two, said the military’s action against her hinged on the fact that she was pictured wearing her uniform.

She was photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline “Tough Love.” The following pages showed her partially clothed wearing dog tags and fully nude. After the pictorial hit newsstands in January, Manhart was relieved of her duties pending an investigation.

Oh, right – so torture, rape and wanton destruction is OK, but tits aren’t.

But wait! Tits are fine with the military – they’ll even give you bigger tits if you join up.

According to the Army, between 2000 and 2003 its doctors performed four hundred and ninety-six breast enlargements and a thousand three hundred and sixty-one liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents. In the first three months of 2004, it performed sixty breast enhancements and two hundred and thirty-one liposuctions.

Let me see if I have this straight. If you join the military they’ll make you like like a Playboy model for free*, but if you actually become a Playboy model, you’re a slut not fit for command.

But just think – the ‘Readers’ Wives’ people could actually stop the war in its tracks by publishing a Military Babes Special. The future of Iraq couild depend on pornography.

[* The surgery is free, you buy your own implants]

Oi!

UK politics, War on Iraq
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British citizen?

Opposed the War on Iraq?

Then sign this.

If bloody roadtax can get a million signatures, surely this petition to get Blair to stand trial for his crimes can get a few more…

(Thanks to Many Angry Gerbils.)

“And Next Week, We Show You How To Tackle Nuclear Proliferation By Skipping A Coffee-Break”

Activism, Democratic (in)action, War on Iraq
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This story about what massive sacrifices some Alabama ’60s throwbacks are prepared to make to stop the Iraq war came from Ananova, and I’m still trying to make out whether it’s real or made up. If it’s real, how did Ananova find it? Is this couple self-obsessed enough to have sent out a press release?

Bed-in protest

A US couple are staging a John and Yoko-style bed-in protest against the war in Iraq.

Ernie and Lynn Seewer of Mobile, Alabama, have moved their bed into their living room and want others to do the same.

Ernie told the Press-Register: “Like John Lennon and Yoko said: “Hey, we don’t mind acting the fools – if we can get our message out”.”

During the bed-in, the Seewers still go to work and go about their daily lives as usual. But at night, they sleep in the living room.

Ernie said the process of moving the bed from one room to the other was “rough.”

“You take it apart, and you move the couch around and the coffee table around,” he said. “It was kind of a big project.” [My emphasis]

Lynn, a volunteer literacy tutor, added: “I’ve tried, you know, writing letters and making phone calls and e-mails and the proper channels, and that’s gotten me nowhere.”

Ernie, a media productions specialist at the University of South Alabama, said he first thought of the bed-in during Thanksgiving.

“We’re all going around eating turkey and dressing and having a good old time when our guys are dying over there,” he said. “Remember, it’s a war.”

Yes, and all this week to end world hunger I shall be watching DVDs instead of telly and drinking PG Tips instead of Typhoo. I reckon the cause is worth any sacrifice.

Are the Seewers really deluded enough to think they’re going to fire up the populace like this or are they just after their 5 minutes 30 seconds in the spotlight?

Oh right, my duh. Mr Seeger is a media productions specialist. I should’ve known – it’s art. As you were, then.

As any fule kno art spray paints any inanity with instant press credibility and newworthiness,m which neatly answers the self-obsession and press release questions.