It’s been taken down, replaced by other breaking news, but there was a shocked – shocked! report at Huffington Post over the weekend that the Iranian government had been conducting Gestapo-like midnight raids on the homes of suspected instigators of protests.
Here’s a snippet from Casaveria.com, an independent news-gathering site:
Officially the government will not confirm the allegations that Basij militia have been breaking in to people’s homes and abducting members of the opposition under cover of darkness. Efforts by citizens’ groups to use the fabric of their communities to watch out for, single out and evade or protect against the secret members of the Basij are now being characterized by some as “Basiji hunting”, a development the regime might use to claim a right to military defense.
Yes, indeed, the Iranians are doing some nasty stuff, and they are bad guys.
But the reason this caught my eye – perhaps the reason it was taken down – is the unspeakably grotesque hypocrisy. Huffington was shocked that police would conduct midnight raids on homes in Iran. Huffington doesn’t have a clue that the U.S. has been conducting midnight raids on homes in Iraq for six years now.
It’s policy; it’s standard counterinsurgency practice. U.S. soldiers and mercenaries go out at night and break down the doors, screaming and yelling, forcing the family members to sit and watch as the fathers or brothers or other male occupants are interrogated, humiliated, and taken away to the torture chambers.
As many as 60,000 Iraqis had disappeared by 2005, according to independent journalist Dahr Jamail. Many times they never reappeared – families would appeal to U.S. authorities to know the location of their loved ones. At times they would confirm that they were holding them, but not disclose the location. Most times they just stonewalled.
Abu Ghraib was no aberration, nor an isolated incident. Torture and disappearances and midnight raids were policy. Are policy. It’s going on right now.
Chris Hedges did a piece in the Nation Magazine (The Other War, 7/9/07) where he interviewed fifty or so returning veterans. They talked about it.
And we were approaching this one house,” he said. “In this farming area, they’re, like, built up into little courtyards. So they have, like, the main house, common area. They have, like, a kitchen and then they have a storage shed-type deal. And we’re approaching, and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, ’cause it’s doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it. And he didn’t–motherfucker–he shot it and it went in the jaw and exited out. So I see this dog–I’m a huge animal lover; I love animals–and this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he’s running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, What the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I’m at a loss for words. And so, I yell at him. I’m, like, What the fuck are you doing? And so the dog’s yelping. It’s crying out without a jaw. And I’m looking at the family, and they’re just, you know, dead scared. And so I told them, I was like, Fucking shoot it, you know? At least kill it, because that can’t be fixed….
“And–I actually get tears from just saying this right now, but–and I had tears then, too–and I’m looking at the kids and they are so scared. So I got the interpreter over with me and, you know, I get my wallet out and I gave them twenty bucks, because that’s what I had. And, you know, I had him give it to them and told them that I’m so sorry that asshole did that.
“Was a report ever filed about it?” he asked. “Was anything ever done? Any punishment ever dished out? No, absolutely not.”
Specialist Chrystal said such incidents were “very common.”
According to interviews with twenty-four veterans who participated in such raids, they are a relentless reality for Iraqis under occupation. The American forces, stymied by poor intelligence, invade neighborhoods where insurgents operate, bursting into homes in the hope of surprising fighters or finding weapons. But such catches, they said, are rare. Far more common were stories in which soldiers assaulted a home, destroyed property in their futile search and left terrorized civilians struggling to repair the damage and begin the long torment of trying to find family members who were hauled away as suspects.
Raids normally took place between midnight and 5 am …
Any activity by the Iranians must be measured against activities by the Americans in Iraq since 2003 (1991, actually), and citizen indignation at violation of human dignity stifled accordingly.
Americans have no right to judge anyone, and must STFU.
Piece of Mindful 
DEA, ATF, FBI and probably ICE and Homeland Security have all are trained in this tactic. When it’s the wrong address, victims don’t collect $20, don’t pass GO. I bet there’s a battering ram in every police station in the U.S. Door manufacturers’ stimulus.
LikeLike
Ladybug makes a cogent point. One, by the way, that I have been making for years about the destruction of our liberties via RICO (violation of due process) and the Patriot Act (with things like “sneak and peak” search warrants) – just to name two.
I don’t understand, however, your point about keeping quiet on the transgressions of Iranian thugs simply because we our own (not to mention your generalizations about “Americans” and what right each has to judge.)
I guess I’ll have to buy a subscription to Two Wrongs Make A Right magazine.
LikeLike
Two wrong do not make a right. But it helps to be aware that there are two wrongs being committed, which is the point. It’s very bad form to get upset when they do the very things we do, and the general public ignorance about the things that the rest of the world knows about us that we don’t know about ourselves tweaks me.
LikeLike
It seems to me your point was “Any activity by the Iranians must be measured against activities by the Americans in Iraq since 2003 (1991, actually), and citizen indignation at violation of human dignity stifled accordingly.” – which is a logical fallacy. Why must those two activities be measured against one another?
It seems to me that the better argument would be outrage toward both rather than STFU. Seems to me you should be outrages at what the Iranians are doing if you’re outrages that we do it too.
LikeLike
Logical fallacy? It is not faulty reasoning, though perhaps not worded terribly well. If one is aware of both American and Iranian behavior, one can justly criticize both. If one is aware of one and not the other, criticism of the one you are aware of is uninformed, and you really ought to read a book or consult a foreign news source. (This would be most Americans.) If one is aware of American behavior, and still chooses to be indignant at the Iranians, then it is utter hypocrisy. Those in government who fit into the latter category have agendas and that does not bode well for Iranians.
LikeLike
Yes, the statement I quoted is a logical fallacy called “the fallacy of two wrongs make a right” or “Tu Quoque” (you too) if you would bother to study your logic for a minute.
If you want to make a point about American’s ignorance than I suggest you argue it outright. If you want to call someone a hypocrite point out the hypocricy. But to castigate the whole of America for the sins of some is both arrogant and small minded in the same verse.
LikeLike
Nowhere do I say or even imply that two wrongs make a right. That’s your invention.
I castigate most of America and am entitled to do so, as you and I both know that Americans don’t know squat about American activities overseas.
As to how I make my points, I suggest you write as you write, and allow me to do the same, and chuck the arrogance.
LikeLike
This is great. You put up a post telling people to STFU and then tell me you have every right to say what you will how you will.
LikeLike
The message STFU, as you well know, is aimed at those who do not know of American foreign policy, and those who know about it and don’t care. If you are aware of both, speak freely without shame.
LikeLike
Thanks for the equivocation.
LikeLike
The “sins of some” is how America is viewed by many in the Middle East. And its how Americans also oversimplify and misunderstand others abroad. Wave that little flag all you want, Dave, but policies matter. Truth, not half-truths, matter. Like the mindless “USA, USA” chants (of some)at Olympic events, what’s seen and heard in the media tends to reinforce a narrow, unfavorable opinion of America and Americans.
LikeLike
Show me where I’ve waved the flag here. My point was Mark’s continual tendency to paint with an overly broad brush.
LikeLike
Those things I paint are the intended consequences of policy – they are the natural result of domination of technology and preponderance of military hardware. The goal is to secure resources. With a military machine so vast, human fallout is severe, and the natural human tendency is to minimize it, ignore it, or blame it on others. The U.S. does all of that.
The rise of China and India is inevitable – the fight in the Afghanistan region is to deny resources to them. One can only hope that those countries are more charitable stewards of the globe than we have been. But my fear is that humans are humans.
LikeLike
I know precisely what I said, and so do you. Who is it here that is equivocating and word-stuffing?
LikeLike
Mark’s brushwork is truly his own. It’s how we know one artist from another. Good eye. Didn’t mean to put that little flag in your hand, but I thought I saw it waive. Something about your sensitivity re: “castigate the whole of America.” Must have imagined it — a “shock and awe” flashback perhaps. I’m still trying to recover.
LikeLike
By this post Mark’s “brushwork” is but finger painting.
Secondly, I’m no jingoist. Inflict your prejudices on someone else.
LikeLike
When you describe yourself at any time, you are what you intend yourself to be; neither more, nor less.
LikeLike