Category: US

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Impervious to 650,000 Iraqi deaths

Three Monkeys of the Apocalypse

As reported at Now Public, the United Stupids have denied a visa to one of the recent Lancet Iraqi death study researchers, Dr. Riyadh Lafta, who will instead present his talk in Canada.

An Iraqi medical school professor will talk about the death count in Iraq after the 2003 invasion: causes, types of victims, categories of violence, and other health indicators.

Dr. Riyadh Lafta will be in North America to collaborate with University of Washington colleagues on a research project to document elevated levels of pediatric cancers in Basra, Iraq. The project was conceived as part of a sister university relationship between Basra Univ and the UW. The research project is supported by a grant from the Puget Sound Partners, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative.

Dr. Riyadh Lafta, who teaches medicine at Baghdad’s Al-Mustansiriya University College of Medicine, co-authored the October 2006 Lancet article that estimated more than 650,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the the American-led invasion in 2003.

Lafta will speak at a public gathering at Simon Fraser University’s Wosk Centre (580 W Hastings in downtown Vancouver BC) on Friday, April 20, at 7 pm.

His talk will be video cast to the UW’s Kane Hall at the same time with the opportunity for interactive audience participation.

Dr. Lafta will be a guest of Simon Fraser University, in part because the U.S. State Department would not issue him a visa to come to the United States.

The public is welcome at either location.

For more information:
Tim Takaro, MD, MPH, Simon Fraser Faculty of Health Sciences
ttakaro at sfu dot ca
604-268-7186

Amy Hagopian, PhD, UW School of Public Health
hagopian at u dot washington dot edu
206-616-4989, 685-3676 or Ian Maki 206-543-6020

The ABC records the members of the Coalition of the Gobbling’s infantile reactions to the Lancet study:

GEORGE W. BUSH: I don’t consider it to be a credible report.

JOHN HOWARD: I don’t believe that Johns Hopkins research, I don’t.

Continue reading “Impervious to 650,000 Iraqi deaths”

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No Easter eggs for Ahmaddy

Ahmadibunny

Even at Easter, following Ahmadinejad’s generous theatrical gesture releasing the Brit sailors, the United Stupids remain fixed in a characteristically un-Christian mind frame. They continue to refuse Iran access to their 5 officials abducted by the United Stupids.

“I think there’s no inclination right now to let them go,” Mr Gates said in Washington when asked about the fate of the five Iranians captured by US forces in Iraq and held since January.

“Iraqi government officials and US officials are discussing if there’s some way, perhaps, that there could be some kind of Iranian access to them,” he said. “But as far as I know, there’s no requirement for that.”

“I don’t think that consular access is being considered. I think the issue is whether there’s some other means by which some other access might be given,” he said.

Mr Gates’s comments appeared to fall short of a statement by US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell, who told reporters in Baghdad that a consular request to visit the five Iranians was “being assessed”.

The United Stupids’ hostage taking may blow up their faces, as Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has agreed with Tehran that

the men were operating with the knowledge of the Iraqi government and were not involved in any sort of “clandestine operation”.

“They were known by us. They were under surveillance by regional security. They operated with the approval of the regional government and with the knowledge of the Iraqi government.

“We were in the process of formalising that liaison office into a consulate. Then they would have diplomatic immunity,” he said.

As usual, Doodoo’s peculiar god must be telling him fibs.

Bush’s assertion that “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job” brings to mind God as a dull-witted, cognitively-impaired nationalist unable to utter a simple declarative sentence who spends his time preaching “blessed are the warmongers and profit-makers.”

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Coalition of the Gobbling vs Iraq 111

This story from the UK Independent, on the 600,000 and more Iraqi casualties slaughtered by the Coalition of the Gobbling, received pathetically little coverage in the dailies.

As it’s such a significant and horrific admission on the part of the United Kooks, we’ll help air the facts some more. The Coalition of the Gobbling is certainly way ahead of Saddam’s efforts at this stage and is not looking like letting up. But what the hell – when the West kills en masse, it’s only collateral damage and a necessary side effect of creating “democracy” – yet when some tinpot dictator created and coddled by the West till he’s served his purpose does it, it’s genocide.

British backtrack on Iraq death toll
By Jill Lawless

British government officials have backed the methods used by scientists who concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the invasion, the BBC reported yesterday.

The Government publicly rejected the findings, published in The Lancet in October. But the BBC said documents obtained under freedom of information legislation showed advisers concluded that the much-criticised study had used sound methods.

The study, conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, estimated that 655,000 more Iraqis had died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. The study estimated that 601,027 of those deaths were from violence.

The researchers, reflecting the inherent uncertainties in such extrapolations, said they were 95 per cent certain that the real number of deaths lay somewhere between 392,979 and 942,636.

The conclusion, based on interviews and not a body count, was disputed by some experts, and rejected by the US and British governments. But the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Roy Anderson, described the methods used in the study as “robust” and “close to best practice”. Another official said it was “a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones”.

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Shock horror – Ruddock protects free speech rights

Ruddock has stood up for the rights of Asstralians against the United Stupids! Team Rodent may be so keen to make up poll losses that they are saying something right (read electorally popular) for a change.

A plea deal condition that prevents David Hicks speaking to the media for 12 months would not be enforceable in Australia, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says.

Mr Ruddock said Australia had no law making it a crime for Hicks to talk, and the United States would only be able to act on a plea bargain breach if Hicks came “within their reach”.

But for Australia to agree to an extradition, a charge similar to the one laid overseas must exist under Australian law, Mr Ruddock said.

“In Australia, we have a position about freedom of speech,” Mr Ruddock told ABC’s Lateline program.

“I’ll leave it to your imagination as to a way in which somebody seeking extradition in relation to a party for breaching a so-called gag order would be able to be delivered up through the judicial processes in Australia.”

Asked if the gag order meant nothing, and Hicks would be able to speak to the media, Mr Ruddock responded: “I suspect you are probably right”.

Mr Ruddock said the United States included the clause in the plea bargain and it was a matter for the United States, Hicks and his advisers.

“I don’t think it’s a matter for us to enforce,” he said.

Will the gobblement still be able to grab Hicks’ story proceeds if the US Supreme Court declares the kangaroo court under which he was “sentenced” null and void at some time in the future? At the time of his arrest, Hicks had not broken any Whorestralian laws.

Although prisoners in Oz jails can’t hold press conferences, if he was released pursuant to the above, Hicks may become a *very* rich fellow from the telling of his sorry tale sooner rather than later. Perhaps there would also be a potential for an action against the US government for unlawful imprisonment and maltreatment. Sadly, on the 2 April, despite the dissent of 3 judges, the US Supreme Court did not uphold the habeas corpus rights of two convicted defendants.

Hicks is to pursue his education during his Australian jail term. It would be deliciously ironic if he decided on a legal career.