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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Cantwell Calls For Haditha Investigation

Posted by on June 14 at 12:10 PM

In a nod to some of the anti-war protesters who have taken her to task for trusting Bush & the DOD for her info on Iraq, Sen. Cantwell called for a congressional investigation into Haditha this morning.

David Postman reports on his blog:

During debate this morning on an emergency supplemental bill with money for Iraq and Afghanistan, Sen. Maria Cantwell called for a congressional investigation of the killings in Haditha:

“The United State must make sure it does not ever condone indiscriminate, deliberate, killings of civilians.”
She said soldiers accused of wrongdoing should be subject to the military justice system:

“But I think we should also play our oversight role here in Congress and make sure that Congress is not leaving the investigation of this issue simply up to the Department of Defense. We need to make sure that Congress is also investigating this issue and giving the accountability and oversight that everyone deserves.”

Here’s a little snippet of the Q&A session (as they recounted to me, anyway) that several anti-war protesters had w the junior senator on May 6—after first staging a sit-in at her Seattle office a week earlier.

Q: How many U.S. soldiers have had to endure a second deployment? Third? Fourth? Fifth?

A: I don’t know.

Lietta Ruger, a member of Military Families Speak Out, informed Cantwell that two Fort Lewis soldiers were recently killed on their sixth deployment.

A: [Cantwell was speechless.]

Q: When it comes to gathering information on Iraq, what is your main source of information?

A: The Department of Defense.

It’ll be interesting to see how Cantwell’s move plays w her antsy base & w the McGavick campaign.


CommentsRSS icon

Maria needs to stand up for our overstretched armed forces, and ask hard questions and demand answers.

Period.

These investigations are mainly good war/ bad war games. Describe one massacre as an isolated event, validate the more systematic massacres inherent in warfare and colonial occupation. Punish the grunts, let the generals off the hook. This isn't even the beginning of an anit-war policy or a solution.

But hell, while she's at it, she could investigate this one too. There are so many stories like this that we never hear about.

* Another Cover-Up? U.S. Troops Kill Two Iraqi Women, One of Them Pregnant,
in Samarra *

On May 30th, US troops shot and killed two Iraqi women -- one of whom was
pregnant. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim and her cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan were in
a car going to Samarra General hospital where Nabiha was about to give
birth. We speak with independent journalist Dahr Jamail about the incident and how the US military may have tried to cover it up.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/14/1424235

Noting again for the record, the "sixth deployment" story is false.

You feel compelled to post it again? I'm speechless!

I think that the idea there is any significant opposition to Cantwell based on her Neanderthal war policy is a pipedream. The only candidate this "opposition" could find is a clown who can't decide if he's a Green, a Libertarian, or a Democrat.

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