Mamatay para mabuhay

Goldenlion:

Isipin mo na lang kung lahat ng mga walang trabaho sa Pilipinas ay sumama sa recruitment na ito? Aba, ubos ang mga pilipino!!! Baka iyan nga ang talagang pakay ni Bansot! Maubos na ang mga walang trabaho sa Pilipinas para masabi niyang na-solve niya ang “unemployment crisis” ng Pilipinas!
Yuck!

Ang nakakatakot ay kung gamitin sila para ipaglaban sa mga galit kay Bansot! Iyan ang masama! Lalong ubos ang mga pilipino! Sila lang ng isa pang tabatsoy at iba pag mga tabatsoy ang matitira! Nangkupo! Tangna talaga! :-p

Ellen,

If you need the video of the beheadings (I have more than 10 in my file since the start of this carnage in Iraq), I can send it to you via post. I can burn you a CD. You may try to show them to these wannabe pugot-ulos.

I wonder if these people in fact have been wanting to commit suicide in their desperation but are being prevented to do so by their religion, and are now finding justification for what they have been intending to do through this kind of recruitment.

Frankly, these are signs of the last days. Golly, saan ka naman nakakita ng mga baliw na gustong magtrabaho sa lugar na may giyera! Por dies por singko!

Bakit nagkaganito ang mga pilipino? Kawawang bansa! Utak jueteng kahit sino! Taya ng taya hindi naman yumayaman. Iyon lang pinaka-jueteng boss ang tiba-tiba!

5M pesos bawat game sa lahat ng jueteng lords, pundo sa Pidal fund! Wow!

Ang tanong ngayon, magkano ang cut ni Bansot sa transaction na ito?

Ellen:

Off topic, but I thought I’d share this story with you regarding journalist’s right not to reveal their sources. At least, over here, the courts still follow the rule of law:

High court: News sources can stay secret

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Tokyo High Court ruled Wednesday that a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter’s refusal to disclose news sources should be allowed as a journalist’s right, overturning a lower court decision.

Presiding Judge Nobuo Akatsuka said in the ruling: “Keeping news sources confidential serves the public interest and their right to know the truth. Even if the sources violated their obligation to protect job secrets, a news reporter is allowed to keep the identity of the sources secret.”

In March, the Tokyo District Court ordered the Yomiuri Shimbun reporter to disclose news sources in connection with a damages lawsuit filed by a U.S. health food company against the U.S. government.

Wednesday’s ruling annulled the district court decision and unconditionally endorsed the reporter’s refusal to testify in the lower court session.

In the district court ruling, presiding Judge Ken Fujishita said keeping a news source confidential should not be allowed if the source was a public servant.

“If a reporter is allowed to refuse to testify about a news source who is suspected to have violated the obligation to keep work secrets, it might help cover up a criminal act,” the judge said.

Wednesday’s ruling stated the role of news organizations was to serve the people’s right to know the truth in democratic societies, a right protected under the Constitution.

The ruling said, “For reporters’ news-gathering activities to be free from intervention by people with public authority, sources need to be kept secret.”

The high court judgment completely opposed the district court position on the relationship between the principles of journalism and public servants’ obligation to keep job secrets.

“Even if news sources violate this obligation, reporters are allowed to keep the sources secret to ensure the people’s right to know the truth,” Wednesday’s ruling said.

“If [reporters] cannot keep sources secret, journalism’s function to check the authorities cannot work,” the ruling said, recognizing the reporter was justified in refusing to reveal the sources.

The ruling also said the reporter was allowed to refuse to answer all related questions in the questioning session held by the district court on behalf of the U.S. District Court of Arizona–not only questions aimed at directly identifying the sources, but also those about organizations to which the sources belonged, the number of sources and about how trustworthy the reporter judged the sources to be.

The ruling said asking numerous questions, even indirect ones, on various subjects might help identify the sources.

Court judgments in the past allowed news reporters to keep news sources confidential only after weighing two factors–how to realize fair trials and the freedom of the press.

But Wednesday’s ruling criticized this conventional view by saying, “It is doubtful whether the two interests can be properly compared.”

The ruling said that in some civil lawsuits, reporters’ rights to conceal sources should be given priority.

“News-gathering activities are possible only when built on the trust of sources based on the rule of confidentiality,” a Yomiuri Shimbun spokesman said. “We believe the ruling is a proper judgment based on an understanding of the fundamentals of journalism.”

The court battle was triggered by a 1997 Yomiuri Shimbun report that Japanese and U.S. taxation authorities had imposed penalty taxes on the U.S. firm after it underreported income to reduce tax payments.

The U.S. firm filed the damages lawsuit against the U.S. government in the Arizona district court, insisting that imposing the taxation was the wrong decision.

In the process of the lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court, as a proxy for the U.S. court, questioned people concerned, including the Yomiuri Shimbun reporter.

In November last year, the reporter refused to answer questions about the news sources during the session at the Tokyo District Court.

The U.S. firm filed another lawsuit about the refusal and the district court handed down its decision in March. The reporter immediately appealed the ruling.
(Jun. 15, 2006)

Malaya stated in an article that Gordon said the government should warn the Filipinos going to Iraq about the risk there. Golly, why just warn when there is a ban about traveling to Iraq?

Over here, we also are warned about traveling to Iraq and the government not answering for us in case we got in trouble there. Yes, the parents of the boy who got killed in Iraq last year in fact got a cold reception when they were apealing for help from the government to save him. especially when the kidnappers were demanding withdrawal of Japanese troops from Iraq, and those who were kidnapped and saved were asked to pay the government expenses incurred in the negotiation for their release to the chagrin of supporters of those who got into such scare. That is why there are no Japanese venturing to go to Iraq at the moment.

On the other hand, the SBMA being into this recruitment makes the Philippine government responsible for these recruits who are in fact going to Iraq at the peril of their lives! They should ask for more benefits to make sure they can even have a plot at some poshy cemetery for their burial!

Anna:

What I have observed in Filipinos in Japan, especially those I have encountered in my line of work as interpreter for the police, court and prison, is that Filipinos are by and large up to have courage to kill anyone when he has a weapon. Otherwise, he hids in his lungga! In other words, matapang lang kapag may hawak na sandata!!!

As for the natural man, the Bible talks of those who have sold their soul to the devil so they say, and the reason for the Bible admonition for us to seek for higher attributes than the natural man who is an enemy to God, and thus, the call for us to follow strictly the simple but strict Ten Commandments that puts killing another human being as No. 1 among those commandments applicable to our relationship with our fellowmen.

It is the reason in fact why we have to have faith in God and in following His admonitions so we won’t remain the savages that the natural man is apt to be in nature, and this by the way can be achieved only in this existence.

So, why should we allow these crooks to push them back to such savagery, which is what wars reduce men to be? It is for this reason in fact that I am in groups in Japan protesting against the remilitarization of Japan that the US is pushing Japan to do so that Japan can join other savages in killing their fellow humankind with or without UN sanction.

At least, where I live, the Mayor is an anti-war activist, and he has instigated a movement in fact for us to make sure our district is not included in the US proposal for war zoning complete with all those Chinese and North Korean scare!!!

Problem in the Philippines is that there is none among the Mayors there strong enough to defy wrong policies of the government from which they should have been free to act against. Those who did lamentably is apt to or must have been now six feet underground!

Fortunately for us, everyone is literate enough to read between the lines that when the US tried to instigate the Japanese to move against the North Korean in an attempt to precipitate an engagement, Japanese authorities have been wise enough to confirm first on whether the North Korean indeed had fired a nuke toward Japan or not. There was none, and there was no reason for Japan to retaliate openly versus the North Koreans, but the Japanese government nonetheless, through China, attempted to seek a dialogue with the North Koreans because the truth was we could not afford to go to war, and the Prime Minister knew he could not get our nod if he did follow the taunting of the mad man at the White House.

At least, I’m glad that our friends in the International Action Center are succeeding in convincing the majority that the preemptive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq (the latter especially despite Sadam) were unjustified and the follies of a mad man. This is not anti-US sentiment. It is a fact!

I would like to recommend that visitors to this blog visit this website, too, for information you cannot read or watch on CNN:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

There, you may be able to get connected likewise to anti-war organizations around the world.

Katas ng Iraq, sorry, but I have difficulty understanding the minds of people who are willing to risk their lives for some comfort that is not even long-lasting as compensation for the risk that you guys are willing to put yourselves into.

Kung hindi kasiraan ng ulo ang pagpunta ng mga pilipinong ito sa mga lugar na may giyera para lang mamamatay imbes na mabuhay e ano iyan? Kabobohan?

Lumang istorya na ang sinasabi mo Trabahapi. Ang tanong, bakit hindi marunong madala ang mga pilipinong nagpapaloko sa mga recruiter na siyang yumayaman ng ginagawang pagtataboy sa inyo para kayo maubos na nang tuluyan?

Anong anti-US crap ang pinagsasabi mo? Sorry, pero hindi ako katulad mong handang magpaalipin sa mga kano sa inaakala mong magandang trato nila sa inyo. Wow, hindi mo pa nakita ang pagkakaiba ng trato nila sa mga pilipinong dyino-dyos sila sa trato nila sa mga hapon na hindi nagpapaloko sa kanila dahil sa totoo lang hindi nila maintindihan ang mga tao dito.

Pero isang halimbawa na lang ay ang ginagawang pambabastos doon sa biktima ng rape dahil lang kasi may DOJ Secretary kayo na hindi marunong magmahal ng kapwa niya pilipino at siya pa ang unang-una humuhusga doon sa kababayan niya imbes na ipagtanggol niya.

Sorry, kahit na mga kaibigan kong mga amerikano na walang lahing pinoy ay galit sa loko-lokong nakaupo sa White House dahil inuubos ang pera nila sa giyerang siya lang at ang pamilya niya ang makikinabang! Kaya bakit ako maniniwala sa iyo?

Puede ba, hindi na teritoryo ng Amerika ang Pilipinas para kumilos pang parang mga alipin ng mga kano ang mga pilipino? At saka, puede ba huwag naman ninyong ipakitang handa kayong kumain ng tae ng mga kano “makaranas lang kayo ng kaunting ginhawa”?! Yuck!

Dapat diyan, ipinaglalaban ninyo ang inyong mga karapatang hindi gutumin ng mga milyonaryong nakaupo sa inyong pamahalaan. Aba, nagmalaki pa iyong pandak na mayayaman daw ang mga ministro niya habang nagugutom ang mga kababayan niyang handang magpakamatay “makaranas lang siya ng kaunting kaginhawahan!” Ang tindi! Dapat magmartsa kayo araw-araw para mapalitan ng mga matitino ang mga talagang nagpapahirap sa inyo.

Related topic for the information of those who still are willing to be forewarned:

Father’s Day: The Dangerous Notions of Michael Berg

Part I: A Serviceable Villian and an Idealist Son

By Chris Floyd

06/15/06 “Information Clearing House” — — After last week’s killing of terrorist chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (or someone just like him) in Iraq, remembrances of his most celebrated alleged victim surfaced briefly in the press: Nicholas Berg, the American businessman whose horrific beheading was publicized in a video fortuitously released less than two weeks after the first revelations of U.S. torture at Abu Ghraib.

It was this video – which featured five surprisingly chubby terrorists, masked, one wearing a gold ring forbidden by extremist Islam, another reading in halting Arabic – that made Zarqawi the Pentagon poster boy for the insurgency. Pentagon documents unearthed by the Washington Post this April revealed that the elevation of Zarqawi’s profile was a deliberate, multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign aimed at the American people to foment the lie that the insurgency was largely an al Qaeda terrorist operation, not a native rebellion against the occupation. As one Pentagon general told a group of deception commandos: “The Zarqawi Psy-Op program is the most successful information campaign to date.”

Zarqawi – a Jordanian thug who, like so many others, had been radicalized by the American-backed anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan – was a White House tool from the beginning. Before the war, his two-bit terrorist wannabe organization in the Kurdish-held Iraqi north had been targeted for destruction by U.S. Special Forces. But as the Atlantic Monthly reports, George W. Bush prevented at least three separate operations that would have eliminated the Zarqawi group – because such a strike would have interfered with that earlier psy-ops attack on the American people: the selling of the Iraq invasion on false pretenses. Although Zarqawi’s gang was in U.S.-controlled territory where Saddam had no power, the Regime’s war-peddlers used it to “prove” the non-existent link between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Spared by Bush, Zarqawi proved a serviceable villian after the invasion, always there to be blamed for a new terrorist spectacular whenever a spate of bad war news hit the Homeland press – despite, once again, being in the crosshairs of American forces on several occasions. On at least three occasions in the past year, Jordanian intelligence had pinpointed Zarqawi’s location in Iraq and passed the intelligence to their close compadres in the American security organs; but every time, the Americans somehow “arrived too late,” as the Atlantic reports.

However by this spring, with no amount of psy-ops able to halt Bush’s plunge in the polls – and with the horrific sectarian civil war unleashed by Bush’s aggression eclipsing all other violence – the “Zarqawi program” was obviously faltering: not enough PR bang for the buck. And so they did his quietus make – not with a bare bodkin but a thousand pounds of bombs: a little bit of “shock and awe” to goose the news cycle. Bush could have stopped him long ago; he could have spared the Iraqi people the ravages of his favored freebooter; but he chose not to.

Who can say if the beheading of Nicholas Berg – which made Zarqawi a “star” and adroitly demonized the whole Iraqi resistance at such a critical moment – was part of that “most successful information campaign to date”? One can only hope not; one can only hope that in this, as in so many other instances, the Bush Regime was just lucky. After all, who can forget that incredible stroke of good fortune on September 11, 2001 – just one year after a group led by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush declared that only a “new Pearl Harbor” could “catalyze” the American people into accepting their radical militarist program of conquering Iraq, establishing bases in Central Asia, waging “pre-emptive” wars, weaponizing space, gutting nuclear treaties, and larding the war-related industries with pork beyond the dreams of avarice. As Bush himself said while the Twin Towers were still smoldering: “Through my tears, I see opportunity.”

Nicholas Berg, on the other hand, was remarkably unlucky. More of an idealist than a chest-thumping corporate predator like ex-CEOs Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, Berg, 26, had developed a method for helping underdeveloped areas build safe, affordable structures where steel is hard to come by, as Wikipedia reports. Progress, not profit, was his motivating force. He was also an idealist in another way: he believed in his government. The president said Iraq had been liberated – “mission accomplished” – and that American companies needed to help the Iraqi people rebuild their land. Berg didn’t realize that the president was a liar. Iraq had not been liberated but delivered into a new hell. Mass deaths, house raids, airstrikes, societal collapse and torture had spawned a fierce armed resistance. Bush’s invasion had also loosed the most brutal, ignorant religious extremists – like Zarqawi – to prey upon the land. Meanwhile, “reconstruction” was a sick joke: it was just a pipeline for Bush cronies to drain Iraq, and the U.S. Treasury, bone-dry.

Berg came alone: no bodyguard of bristling mercenaries, no Halliburton subcontracts, no Beltway cronies. Work was promised, but without that insider grease, fell through. He decided to go home. Six days before his scheduled departure, he was suddenly seized by Iraqi police and turned over to U.S. forces. For reasons still unclear, he was held for 13 days – during which time the Abu Ghraib revelations ignited the land, and the tinderbox of Fallujah exploded when four mercenaries were killed in retaliation for the American shooting of Iraqi protestors a few days before.

Berg was released into this heightened turmoil one day after his family filed a lawsuit against his illegal detention; he disappeared four days later. His remains were found one month later near a Baghdad highway; the gruesome video appeared three days after that. Abu Ghraib disappeared from the front pages; it was not an issue in the presidential election that year.

Zarqawi – or “Zarqawi” – was the fake emblem of a fake war, the “war on terror” that the Bush Regime is pretending to fight while it goes about its long-planned business of exploiting “opportunities” like 9/11. Nicholas Berg was no emblem; he was just another human being literally ripped to shreds in that dark maw where high politics and low murder feast on the same lies, the same flesh.

Part II: A Dangerous Man
But despite the central role that Berg unwillingly played in the concoction of the Zarqawi legend, he was largely airbrushed from the lurid coverage of its grand finale. That’s because any new story on Berg would naturally center around his most outspoken survivor, his father Michael. And Michael Berg is a man with a dangerous message, a radical subversion of every value that the Bush Administration is fighting to preserve.

In many ways, of course, it’s an ancient danger, a destabilizing notion that has threatened the guardians of civilization for thousands of years. Its advocates have always been relegated to the lunatic fringe, ignored and forgotten, except in rare cases when their subversion has taken hold, usually among the lower orders. In each such case, however, down through the ages, the civilized world has, like a healthy body, acted swiftly to remove the carriers of disorder. Still, in every generation the bacillus emerges once again, and Michael Berg, no doubt weakened by his grief, has become seriously infected.

It’s no wonder, then, that his media appearances last week were so brief and circumscribed. For there he was, father of a victim murdered in the most gruesome fashion imaginable by the terrorist Zarqawi (or someone just like him), a survivor fully entitled to exult in the revenging fury and violent self-righteousness that are among the chief values of the Bush Imperium – and all Berg could talk about was mercy and forgiveness, peace and restoration. He would not even take pleasure in the death of Zarqawi, whom he called a “fellow human being.” Instead, he grieved for Zarqawi’s family and wished that the brutal killer could have been subjected to “restorative justice” – made to work in a hospital with children maimed by war, for example – setting him on a path where his human decency might have been restored.

Nor would Berg praise the guardian of civilization, George W. Bush, for finally ending the career of the terrorist he had used so cynically to justify aggressive war. Instead, Berg blamed Bush for unleashing mass death on the people of Iraq, and instigating the cycle of violence that had consumed his son. But even for the authors of war, for the state terrorists who kill on an industrial scale, by remote control, ensconced in safety, comfort, privilege and wealth, Berg called for restoration, not revenge: they should be removed from power and compelled to some compassionate labor that might redeem their corrupted humanity.

It goes without saying that Berg’s comments were instantly condemned throughout the vast engine of bile-driven groupthink known as the rightwing media. He was reviled as a traitor, a fool, a terrorist-lover, “less than human,” a monster whose son will slap his face in the afterlife. He was derided for his quixotic Congressional campaign as the Green Party candidate for Delaware: what place do such weapons of the weak – mercy, forgiveness, non-violence – have in the halls of power? For the mainstream, he was just a blip, a quirky diversion in the flood of triumphant stories on Zarqawi’s demise.

And to be sure, it is foolish to oppose the cherished values of our 21st century civilization: violence, bluster, ignorance and fear. It’s foolish to take upon oneself the responsibility to break the cycle of violence at last, to say: “Let it end with me, if nowhere else; let it end now, no matter what the provocation; let something new, something more human, some restoration take root in this bloodstained ground.”

But what if such folly is the only way for humankind to begin climbing out of the festering pit we have made of the world?

Copyright Chris Floyd. Visit his blog http://www.chris-floyd.com

Tama ka, Ellen, kahit na anong sabihin ng mga ito, giyera ang pupuntahan ng mga niloloko nila na hindi naman nakakahalata lalo na’t akala nila ay tiba-tiba ang ibabayad sa kanila lalo na kung may kasama pang green card sa US. Hindi nila alam na kapiranggot iyon ng ibinabayad sa mga kumukuha sa kanila! Yuck talaga!

Bagay ang impression, mahina sa kuwentahan ng pera ang mga pilipino kaya niloloko tulad noong mga pilipinong 24-hour duty sa amo nila bilang mga domestic helpers. Kung ang sueldo nila ay less than 300 dollars a month e parang a dollar a day lang sila. Daig pa sila noong nagtratrabaho sa MacDonald. Dito nga, iyong tagaprito doon, more than 10-dollar an hour ang sueldo.

1000 dollar a month with no guaranty of fringe benefits? Bale $33 a day walang bakasyon?! Maliit pa iyan sa minimum wage dito sa Japan hindi pa delikado ang buhay! Doon sa Iraq o kahit sa Lebanon, where we have heard of Filipino women being pushed from the windows by their employers to their death after being sexually molested pero walang magawa ang mga kumag sa DoLE kaya takbo ang mga kamag-anak sa mga NGOs, delikado ang buhay nila! Hindi worth sa totoo lang!

Kundi iyan kabaliwan or kabobohan, ano iyan recruitment na iyan sa Iraq na delikado kahit ngayon na patay na si Zarqawi na hindi naman Iraqi dahil hindi hihinto ang mga Iraqi sa pagtatanggol ng kanilang kalayaan laban sa mga dayuhang sumasakop sa kanila? Kagaguhan, katarantaduhan o kawalanghiyaan na?

Now, as for JdV, mukhang may nangangalingasaw sa pananalita ng taong ito. Baka siya ang big boss sa mga transaction na ito? Kaya pagbutihin sana ni Senator Biazon ang pag-imbestiga niya ng recruitment na ito para mapaalis iyong mga Amerikanong gustong magsamantala at mang-alipin sa mga pilipinong gutom!

Suya ako sa taong (JdV)iyan na wala ng hiya na ipinapain ang mga kababayan niya sa panganib tapos kahit kriminal tatawagin niyang bayani gaya noong ginawa niya para kay Flor Contemplacion na pumatay ng isang kapwa niya pilipino niya at isang walang kamuwang-muwang na batang Singaporean.

Iyong Migrant Act ginawa pa niyang tribute sa isang kriminal. Gosh, nasaan ang delikadeza ng mamang ito?! Bagay, pangit ang mukha kaya pangit din ang kaluluwa! :-p

Ang dapat talagang gawin ay PATALSIKIN NA, NOW NA! SIPAIN DIN IYONG MGA TONGRESSMEN AT SENATONG NA NAGPAPAHIRAP SA MGA PILIPINO! ANG DAPAT NA GAWIN AY MAGMARTSA PARA PATALSIKIN ANG MGA ULUPONG AT PALITAN NG MGA TUNAY NA NAGMAMALASAKIT SA BAYAN AT NANG DI NA SILA, MGA TRABAHADOR NA PILIPINO, AALIS NG PILIPINAS PARA MAKATIKIM NG GINHAWA!

NOW, KUNG SASABIHIN NAMAN NG MGA MAKULIT NA WALA SILANG TIWALA SA MGA IPAPALIT NILA SA MGA NAKAUPO NGAYON E, TALAGANG WALA NA NGANG PAG-ASA! POR DIES POR SINGKO!

Sabi ng isang kakilala kong senador sa Pilipinas tungkol sa ibinalita kong pagdisiplina sa mga militar sa Japan nang madiskubre ang anomalyang ginawa nila tungkol sa isang private bidding: SIMPLY UNDOABLE IN GOOD OLD RP!
KAHIT ANG EXPRESSION – ‘WALANG HIYA’ HAS LOST ITS MEANING. CORE VALUES OF DECENCY, HONOR AND EVEN DELICADEZA OF YORE ARE GONE. TOUGH LUCK FOR OUR PEOPLE? INDEED, THAT’S HOW IT LOOKS. ANYWAY, WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP ON FIGHTING EVEN FOR WHAT APPEARS TO BE LOST CAUSES. OTHERWISE, WE ARE LOST.

Nakakalungkot! Kawawang bansa!

Ellen:

It sure is. One thing good about what we do here in Japan re Iraq is that we are able to hear the real story from real victims of this war.

Iyong si Berg, I suspect that he was killed by his own people, who wanted to benefit from his death by pretending that he was kidnapped by Zarqawi’s group that the Americans in fact have failed to link with Sadam, who did not like the group of Bin Laden as a matter of fact.

For more information not publicized on CNN, I recommend
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

BTW, if the OFWs in the Middle East do not want to be in danger or put in danger, they should protest against this recruitment of Filipinos to war-zone, Iraq! Kagaguhan na iyan as a matter of fact!

Ellen:

For more information on the real situation in Iraq, etc., I recommend http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

I don’t see how the OFWs in the Middle East can be in a much worse situation now with this expose on the Filipino mercenaries bound to Iraq that they are now.

I just received a message from my contacts in KSA titled “From Saudi with Tears!” regarding OFWs there who run to the NGOs for help from their abusive employers. So, who say that Filipinos can be safer than what they are not even in their own country by yours and Malaya’s exposure of this mercenary recruitment amidst the ban of travel to Iraq!

Over in Japan, an activity like this will merit full police investigation since travel to Iraq is presently banned even here. Some people just got to be made answerable for this.

I hope Senator Biazon will be able to find and do something to stop this lunacy.

Over in Japan, we are on full watch and alert for victims of the post-Japayuki recruitment that we are told the Philippine government is not stopping even amids the ban for this kind of deployment of youngsters from the Philippines being made to work in bars and clubs as hostesses. What we advocate here in fact is no longer “STOP JAPAYUKI” but “STOP THE BUGAW (PIMPS) POSING AS PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS”!

Keep up the good work, Ellen. I know God is preserving
you because your country and people need you.

Katas ng Iraq, you are talking shit!

I am my own boss for your information. And I work for pleasure not for the money as a matter of fact, because FYI I believe and abide by the admonition of the Saviour “…That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Mark 4:4, Luke 4:4) You do that, at baka mas lalong guminhawa pa ang buhay mo!

As for being intelligent, who cares what and how you size me up! I know me to be bothered by what you are apt to say. Still, I can have sympathy for you for allowing yourself to fall into the trap of helplessness and despair.

FYI, I have not been recruited by any crook to work in Japan. I have been here long before the Japayukis started coming in to fill up vacancies left by emancipated Japanese women. I chose to be here because I have actually considered myself a Japanese eversince I learned from my father that we had Japanese blood! I opted to be here rather than stay with my family in the USA, because I could not stand discrimination of any kind!!!

In short, I am not just being pro-Japanese but being a good and law-abiding citizen of this country, unlike you who are willing to kill another human being for money even at the peril of your life for a country not even your own! Sorry, I don’t share that philosophy!

Eating Japanese shit? No need to do that over here as far as I am concerned, because I am not a slave to anyone! Besides, Japan is a democracy where everyone is fair and equal under the law! Even Filipinos can take advantage of that if they behave and abide by the law!

“Some people go to other countries to become prostitutes and slaves, our goverment calles them entertainers and domestic helpers it all depends on the way you want to look at it, ” you say? My Gosh, where is your sense of right and wrong? You are definitely talking shit when you condone this government that deploys Filipinos overseas disguised as entertainers and domestic players but let them be exploited in fact as prostitutes and slaves!

This, for your information, is what my friends and I are advocating against even just to bring back sanity, honor and dignity to Filipinos who are being indocrinated to feel and be the scums of the earth!

Nakakaawa ka! Dahil lang sa pera nawala na ang pagmamahal mo sa sarili mo, puri’t dangal!

Now, as for this “racket” (Kaniya-kaniya raket, Katas ng Iraq has described it) of deploying Filipinos to Iraq as mercenaries amidst the travel ban, this should be stopped!

The fact that it is a racket is reason enough for me to support efforts by those who still have their sanity and propriety intact to investigate and expose this racket for what it is.

This should be stopped by all means! Those willing to be lured to this racket I suppose need to be counseled well.

Anna:

I bet the conditions during the war years in the Philippines were much worst, but my mother says they were more decent then to even think of putting their lives at stake for a pittance. That is more to me what having principle is all about.

I would rather say they have become avaricious that they cannot even now value precious lives, including their own! The words a former customs official in the Philippines I met in the police used were “gahaman” and “ganid” to describe what induced him to try to smuggle guns and deliver them to some Yakuza members he befriended in the Philippines. He got 6 years for his crime.

At least, he can still go home. These mercenaries most likely will not!

Ramkor:

Hindi kita maiintindihan kung bakit ipinagpipilitan ninyong gusto ninyong pumatay ng kapwa nilalang ninyong tao.

I work at the police in Tokyo (Ang mga sundalo dito ay hindi nakikialam sa pagpapanatili ng peace and order sa Japan, at bawal sa kanilang mamaril kahit na sino hanggat walang tumitira sa Japan sa isang digmaan!), and never once have I heard a policeman here say that he has to use his gun to keep peace and order in Japan. Hindi pa mga Kristyano ang mga tao dito pero may pagpapahalaga sa buhay ng iba.

Walang justification sa mga pinagsasabi ninyong pagnanais ninyong pumatay ng ibang tao na hindi naman ninyo kaaway. Kaya siguro pinaparusahan ng Diyos ang Pilipinas dahil sa marami na pala sa inyo diyan ang mamamatay tao para mabuhay!

THOU SHALT NOT KILL ang isa sa mahalagang utos ng Diyos. Walang justification sa gusto ninyong pagpapatay ng ibang tao para may maipalamon kayo sa mga pamilya ninyo. Patawarin kayo ng Diyos sa mga uri ng pag-iisip ninyo!

Sundalong kanin ang tingin ko sa mga sundalong pinoy ngayon lalo na iyong nababayaran. Ibang-iba doon sa mga nagbuwis ng buhay nila noong nakaraang digmaan.

Sariling history ng mga ito, hindi pa alam. Palibhasa hanggang doon na lang ang kaya nila. Pumatay para magkakuwarta! Ang tawag diyan mga criminally inclined.

Diyos mahabag! Kaya pala nagpuputukan na ang mga bulkan sa Pilipinas! Sino kaya ang inuubos?

Speaking dito sa Japan, ang mga pilipina pumapasok sa mga gusot na kasama ng mga putol ang daliri (Yakuza) tungkol sa mga insurance. Easy money ang nasasaisip palagi. Pero pag tunay na bayaran ng talagang insurance ayaw magbayad. Kaya hindi sila makapagpagamot ng tama. Nagta-travel sa ibang lugar hindi nagpapa-insure. Ang daming inaatake sa eroplano, bababa tuloy ang eroplano at dadalhin sila sa isang ospital para buhayin, pero walang insurance at hindi mabayaran ang hospital bills. Takbo sa Philippine Embassy o Consulate pero sasabihan naman na walang pera ang bansa. Labas tuloy nangongolekta ng abuloy sa mga pilipinong kapareho din nilang nagpapakahirap mabuhay sa ibang bansa.

Kaya para sa akin, kung gusto talaga ng mga pilipinong tumino ang buhay nila, unahin muna nilang paalisin si Pandak at mga galamay niya at mga walang kuwentang mga nagpapalakad ng bansa nila at mga dayuhang nagsasamantala sa mga pilipino. Baka magkaroon pa sila ng tunay na pag-asa at ginhawa.

Nakakaawang nakakaiyak di ba? Bakit kailangang magpakamatay ang mga ito para guminhawa?

BTW, hindi ako naniniwalang tunay na isang nagigipit itong bastos na hindi marunong mag-spell ng ID name ko. Mukhang kilala ko ang ungas na iyan na kaparehong-kapareho ng writing style noong isang bastos na miyembre ng Internet Brigade ni Pandak na sumasabak sa mga ganitong egroup para manggulo. Buti na lang beterano na tayo sa mga ganitong provocateurs!

Ellen:

Here’s a response from my friends at RAWA to “The Afghanistan Miracle”published in The Seattle Times (October 4, 2005) by Diane Tebelius

The “Miracle” or a Mockery of Afghanistan?

Ms. Diane Tebelius, Republican congressional candidate and observer in the Afghan elections sponsored by the International Republican Institute, is perhaps the first election observer in Afghanistan who wasted no time to communicate her impression in The Seattle Times of October 4, 2005.

A few days ago Ms. Tebelius returned to the United States from Kabul, I am writing these notes as a response to her dreadful article from inside my trampled country. As a member of RAWA, I had to be in several provinces to meet as many people as possible regarding the elections. Tebelius can enjoy the luxury of sitting in her house and so easily call the disgusting mockery of an election “the miracle of Afghanistan”, while I am crying from among the people in the hell of the Taliban and Northern Alliance (NA) terrorists and their “westernized” accomplices. Tebelius and other election observers with their bullet-proofs and body guards were in the hands of the American soldiers and Afghan agents. She might have been told about “swift spreading democracy”, “prosperity”, “complete security” and other “miracles” in our land of warlords and payees of foreign powers. On the other hand since she was selected by the U.S. government that brought Karzai and the Northern Alliance to the scene, it comes as no surprise she is not calling a spade a spade.

One of her miraculous statements is: “The Afghan people see Americans as liberators.”

A distorted proclamation! As we have repeatedly asserted and shown, all of the fundamentalist bands including Taliban were created, funded, and trained by the CIA turning a blind eye to the higher interest of the Afghan people and to the consequence of such sinister support to the fate of freedom and democracy in our country. Thus, the US war on the Taliban is nothing but a family fracas between the father and his rogue children. The US started the fracas by not replacing religious tyranny with democracy, by not relying on the people, but rather by siding with the NA, the very worst enemies of our people. It goes without saying that Afghans will not see as their “liberators” those who drove the Taliban wolves through one door and unchained the rabid dogs of the NA through another. How a nation “sees as liberators” those who have blown to shred not the terrorists but thousands of innocents? How can simple Afghans “see Americans as liberators” while the “liberators” are going to woo their men in the government and in the parliament to approve the establishment of the US bases on our soil for decades, which obviously goes contrary to the independence of the country? Our people say that if Americans were their liberators, they should have not allowed about 200 criminals and arch enemies of democracy to pave their way to the parliament and provincial council. After four years the people see that the “liberators’” promises for them were all lies. And bear it in mind, Ms. Tebelius, that our ruined people have no doubt that those with the disgraceful stories of Abu Ghraib cannot be their “liberators”. Do we need to recite abuses of the “liberators” in Afghanistan?

Even high-salaried government spokespersons do not have the courage to utter such nonsense openly before the people of Afghanistan. But Ms. Tebelius as a U.S. agent and good friend of one of the two most corrupt governments in Asia can and has to throw dust in the eyes of Americans.

Now let’s see more of her “miraculous” words: “I am convinced, now more than ever, that spreading of democracy is the only long-term strategy to defeat global terrorism.”

Nice maxim! But were Americans or Karzai & Co. “spreading democracy” since 2001? After 9/11 when the U.S. resorted to bomb our wounded country and take the lives of several thousands innocent civilians it helped the bloodthirsty NA seize power. The NA is comprised of those millionaire rapists busy in the opium trade under the very nose of the US troops. They are the people behind the insecurity, kidnappings, embezzlement of billions of dollars of foreign aids, injustices, anti-women constraints, covering up of the day light murders, and so on and so forth.

They include the likes of Dr Abdullah, Younis Qanooni, Zia Massud, Karim Khalili, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mohaqiq, Sarwar Danish, Ms. Mosouda Jalal, Nematullah Shahrani, Ismail Khan, Ms. Sediqa Balkhi, Rasul Sayyaf, Ikram Masoomi, Rashid Dostum, Mullah Fazil Hadi Shinwari, Ms. Amena Afzali and others are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of Kabul residents. All of these ladies and gentlemen have the disgraceful scar of inhuman brutalities against our people in the blackest years of 1992-1996. They are “our” ministers, vice presidents and advisors to the president. Most of the Afghan ambassadors, governors, secretaries and other high ranking officials are also affiliated with NA mafia.

Don’t you know them, Ms. Tebelius? Just months ago The New York Times and The Los Angles Times named some of them including one of Karzai’s brothers. Of course Human Right Watch (HRW) and other organizations have disclosed many more names. However, you Ms. Tebelius are making painstaking efforts to portray these criminals and spies as honorable persons under whose rule “democracy” will “spread” and an electoral “miracle” has already been performed! In any case, as one living in Afghanistan I shall mention the following parts of the “miracle” which obviously show only the tip of the iceberg:

– For the presidential election about 70 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. The real figure of the turnout at the “miraculous” elections however is less the 40 percent and in some areas even lower than 30 percent.

– A report by the HRW stated: “In addition to fear of Taliban and other insurgent forces, found primarily in the south and southeast, many voters and candidates voiced concerns to Human Right Watch about their sense of vulnerability at the hands of warlords forces, de facto or official militia forces ostensibly allied with the government:

“Across the country, candidates and political organizers complained to Human Right Watch of cases in which local commanders or strongmen, or local government officials linked with them have held meeting in which they have told voters and community leaders for whom to vote. In some cases, candidates and their supporters allege that direct threats have been communicated.” [1]

– Filthy figures of the Taliban including their foreign minister and the head of their dreaded religious secret police, notorious for executing and abusing thousands of men and women, criminals figures of the infamous terrorist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, high level members of the Soviet backed puppet regime were allowed to stand as candidates, a major factor of disappointment of people to go to the polls.

A conservative EU observer mission said shortcomings during the campaign included intimidation, intervention by officials, inadequate voter lists and “deplorable” killing of candidates and election workers.

– The so-called Electoral Complaints Commission received hundreds of notes about crimes of the fundamentalist leaders, but except some scapegoats, none of them were disqualified. And you know Ms. Tebelius who is the head of the Commission? Bismullah Bismil, an infamous fundamentalist and close relative of Ismail Khan!

– Different kinds of rigging were so blatant that even pro-government and pro-fundamentalist papers couldn’t help but to hint at them.

– In many districts no women could participate in the elections due to security problems. Nevertheless thousands of votes of the women were somehow managed to be cast into the ballot boxes.

– Anti-fundamentalist and anti-government candidates of the parliament and provincial councils of Kapisa Province issued a joint statement condemning irregularities in the elections, desisted from campaign.

– In all areas under the warlords, tens of thousands of ballots have been marked in favor of certain candidates and youth under the age of 18 were brought to vote.

– Ballot boxes were kept for 48 hours or more before being transferred to the polling stations.

– Ms. Shokria Barekzai a participant from Kabul alleged that just in front of her own eyes, ten votes for her were cast for another candidate.

– In Kunduz province, 260,000 votes were cast, but 6,000 of them were excluded in favor of a pro-fundamentalist candidate.

– In some ballots, voters had written words like “he is a murderer”, “he is a bandit”, “he is a foreign agent”, “He is a Talib”, etc. against some candidates, but they were all counted as valid votes.

– Thousands of votes for independent candidates were burnt and thousands of fake votes were cast for the pro-fundamentalists/ pro-Karzai candidates.

– Supervisors and vote counters were forbidden to carry pens. But during a check in a polling center in Nangarhar province, more than 200 pens were found from the mentioned workers. When I asked a middle-aged teacher which candidates is her favorite, she replied: “How can I vote for Engineer Ghaffar, or Hazarat Ali and the like who have blood on their hands?”

– In a constituency in Paktia province, the number of voters was ten thousand, but at least twenty thousands ballots were cast there.. A 30- year-old man from Paktia who was not willing to vote told me: “When I see a traitor like General Shahnawaz Tanai that is so openly is active in election campaign, I can understand how anti-democratic and ridiculous the present election is.”

– In Farah province, Naim Khan Farahi, the biggest landlord of the province, directly backed by the government, by the United Nations’ UNAMA and his gunmen became the “first winner” by committing every kind of irregularity. A nephew of this person is the head of UNAMA in Farah. In Farahrod district another nephew of his (Zabet Jalil) was forcing people by use of his armed henchmen to vote for his uncle.

– Most of the people in Farah are of the opinion that if there were not so much fraud in the elections; Malaali Joya would have garnered at least fifty percent of all votes.

– As in Herat and Nimroz provinces, the regime of Iran had also a hand in Farah. Its intelligence agencies gave 100 millions Toman (about $117,000) to Haji Taimor Shah. His huge color posters were unmatched by others.

– nmatched nt, UNAMA and his gun The stink of the elections spread so wide that even the terrorist Al-Zawahiri talked about them in his statement of 20 September: “The election have been conducted under the terror of [Afghan] warlords. The elections were a masquerade more than anything else, as various regions of the country are under the control of highway men and warlords, and international observers …even the ballot boxes remained in the hands of warlords, bandits and the US agents before they were deposited at the polling centers.”

To get another idea about the scale of corruption and the Karzai regime, we draw your attention to a confidential document recently disclosed by Dr. Ramazan Bashardost. As soon as Dr Bashardost was assigned as the minister of planning he tried to stop activities of 2,000 suspicious and money-maker NGOs, but was soon forced to resign. According to the document, presidents’ spokesperson, ministers and high ranking officials, in addition of other allowances get up to $36,000 annually from a British company. Whereas the disabled get $6 and ordinary government employees get $60 per month only.

The overwhelming corruption has risen to the highest organs. “The President had asked me to assume the responsibility of the Administration of Fight against Corruption,” says Bashardost, “I however told him that I would undertake it provided to start from the Presidential Palace.”

In an interview with Reuters on Aug.30, 2005, he says:

“Government members, the NGOs, the big embassy staff, the United Nations staff … they made a mafia system and you can see the result.” [2]

“We received about $12 billion since three years, where is the money?” he said, referring to international aid since the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001.”

“The Afghan people are against warlords, why does the international community, why does the Afghan government supports warlords?”

“In the provinces, all governors are former warlords, all chiefs of police, and the Afghan people don’t accept this situation.”

– And so on.

It is not difficult to predict what will be the result of the “miracle” election about which you take comfort. A parliament filled with the most cruel, misogynist, anti-democracy, and reactionary fundamentalists headed by such disgusting drug traders as Sayyaf, Qanoni, Rabbani, Mohaqqiq, Pairam Qul, Hazrat Ali, and their likes. These U.S. backed religious fascists will never “spread democracy”, but rather try to “legitimate” and perpetuate their bloody domination on our people by sitting in the legislature as “lawmakers”.

Ms. Tebelius, anybody who wants to be regarded as a friend of the people of Afghanistan and not of the present regime, she/he has to expose the fundamentalists and their dangerous agenda and avoid to dance to the tune of the US government or its blue-eyed boys in Afghanistan. As Aldous Huxley wrote, “The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human”. Please don’t play the role of a propagandist.

Moreover by naming the most scandalous elections in the world “the miracle of Afghanistan”, you have insulted millions of Afghans who didn’t vote for the murderers of their beloved ones. Can’t you feel how painful and disgusting it is to propagate such nonsense?

We hope to recognize you in the future as a sincere friend of our people.

Mehmooda Shekiba, RAWA
Kabul
October 25, 2005

Mehmooda Sheikiba is an activist of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who has worked in the publications committee of RAWA during the past five years.

———————-

1- Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, “Key Areas of Concern. The Threat from Taliban and other Insurgent Forces” (August 2005)

2- From Robert Birsel, “Afghan Former Minister Takes Aim at ‘Mafia System’,” Reuters (August 30, 2005 at 3:53 AM ET) at http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=ISL51261

The Afghanistan Miracle

The Seattle Times (October 4, 2005)
by Diane Tebelius

Having just returned from Kabul, where I served as an election observer from the United States to Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, I am convinced, now more than ever, that spreading democracy is the only long-term strategy to defeat global terrorism.

I have witnessed firsthand the “miracle” of Afghanistan. The Afghan people see Americans as liberators and welcome our support, but our delegation never left the hotel without a security detail or our 30-pound bulletproof vests. And that is the picture that is painted in Afghanistan — the hope of democracy, shaded by the uncertainty of terrorism.

For the historic parliamentary elections, men and women, old and young, defied the ongoing threats from Taliban holdouts and voted for a future free from oppression and violence. Nearly 6,000 candidates ran for the 249 seats in the National Assembly and for the 34 provincial councils.

Because the illiteracy rates are high — 80 percent of the women, due in part to the Taliban’s policy of denying women access to education, and 50 percent for men — the ballots included the picture of the candidate and a symbol for that candidate. And because there were more candidates than recognizable symbols, the candidates had symbols such as “one lion”; “two lions”; and even “three lions.” Posters spread about the city before the election identified each candidate by their respective symbol.

What struck me about these candidates were the issues they talked about: the same issues we find in our own public debates in Washington state. Transportation, safety and jobs headlined the different campaigns. However, unlike our state, where we debate millions of dollars to expand freeways or add bus lanes, Afghans just want the roads paved.

Infrastructure, economic opportunity, public safety and education must exist within the context of a free society. A prosperous and free people will not strap bombs to themselves and blow up innocent women and children for any cause.

In debating the “roots” of terrorism, you can talk about programs. to help the poor, or debt relief, or diplomatic relations. But if the words “we the people,” or “the emancipation of women,” or “respect for the rule of law,” have no meaning, then there is only tyranny.

The women selling their wares on the streets of Kabul can now walk freely about without fear of being beaten if they are not covered from head to foot. The women who once were prisoners in their own homes because it was against the law to be seen in public without a man now joyfully take their daughters to school.

There, too, lies a key to fighting terrorism. Surveys of Muslims that were conducted after the July bombings in London found that women, by a large margin, were much less sympathetic to the ideology of terrorism than were the men.

Free the women, and you begin to safeguard future generations from the snares of Osama bin Laden and his culture of hatred and death.

But building democracy and the institutions that serve the common good and protect individual rights, means you can never escape the uncertainty.

The story of Afghanistan, and other emerging democracies around the world, should inspire us to stay the course. America and the free countries of this world must continue to provide aid and, yes, even military support to the peoples of Afghanistan.

My most memorable moment involved meeting a young lady who had lost her father in the civil wars. She and her mother and brother had fled to Pakistan, and then returned when the Taliban took control. They were forced to leave again when she was told she could not attend school or even work. I asked her why she and her family chose to return after the Taliban’s ouster, despite the uncertainty. “Because I love my country,” was her heartfelt response.

This is the hope and future of Afghanistan. With the world’s continued support, Afghans will succeed, terrorism will be defeated in that country, and the world will be safer.

Diane Tebelius, a former federal prosecutor and Republican congressional candidate, is an attorney in Seattle. She served as an observer in the Afghanistan elections under the sponsorship of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting the growth of freedom and human rights globally. IRI is not affiliated with the Republican Party; it receives some funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

*****
Filipinos should listen to the people of the countries they are going to be deployed to to try to capitulate with the foreign invaders posing as peacemakers! But, yes, as Anna has stated, how do you tell that to people who themselves are willing to be invaded and subjugated by foreigners?

BTW, Ellen, maraming mga pilipina dito nasasangkot sa mga insurance scam dahil sa kasakiman at pagkagahaman.

Iyong mga pilipinong pupunta ng Iraq at Afghanistan, gaya ng sabi mo, ay talagang dapat na siguruhing may makukuha sila kapag napatay sila doon. Baka may insurance nga sila hindi naman mga pamilya nila ang beneficiary kundi iyong mga recruiter na involved sa pagre-recruit sa kanila. Lumang raket na, hindi pa rin nadadala! Sorry, pero plastik naman yatang tawaging katalinuhan iyan? Yuck!

Remember the guy who died in Iraq before and the family lamented the fact that the Philippine government refused to provide assistance, etc. because of the fact that he went there without travel permit. Tignan nga natin ang magiging reaction ni Pandak kung mapugutan ng ulo ang isa sa mga susugod sa Iraq ngayon na wala daw nilang permiso!

Isa na namang publicity stunt ni Bansot ito kapag nagkataon gaya nang makaligtas si Angelo dela Cruz!

BTW, bakit itong si dela Cruz hindi siya nagsasalita para matauhan itong mga kababayan niya at ipaalam niya ang naramdaman niyang takot, pangamba at siphayo nang muntik na siyang mapugutan ng ulo sa Iraq? Hindi ba iyan ang sinabi niya doon sa mga kumidnap sa kaniya—Hindi na siya babalik sa Iraq at sasabihan niya ang mga pilipinong huwag pumunta doon na kasama ng mga Amerikano! Dugong aso din ba iyan?

F

Another news on the US soldiers in Iraq who were reportedly beheaded:

Missing GIs found dead

Iraq’s al-Qaida claims responsibilty for brutal `slaughter’ of U.S. soldiers

By Associated Press
June 20, 2006

Updated 3:23 p.m. BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces today recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and “killed in a barbaric way.”

DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ

Fierce election-year debate on Iraq spilled over into a second week on Capitol Hill with Senate Democrats lining up behind a proposal to start U.S. troop withdrawals this year and Republicans chastising them for espousing a “cut-and-run” strategy.

U.S.-led forces killed 15 terrorist suspects and detained three others during raids today in a village northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Residents said 13 civilians also were killed. The military said the raid targeted individuals linked with a suspected senior al-Qaida in Iraq member, but it did not identify him.

A parked minivan exploded in a busy outdoor market in a Baghdad slum today, killing four people and wounding 16, police said.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up today in a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra, killing two people and wounding three.

No more than a single Iraqi battalion of about 800 soldiers is capable of battling enemy insurgents without American assistance, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, said Monday. But, he added, the Pentagon has made strides in training Iraqis to fight alongside American forces and lead skirmishes against the enemy.

Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq today, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said it would take “dozens of days” for the 600 noncombat troops to leave.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had “slaughtered” them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

He said U.S. troops – part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi forces – found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday.

Troops did not recover the bodies until today because they had to wait until daylight to cordon off the area so an ordnance team could check for mines, Caldwell said.

The checkpoint attacked Friday was in the Sunni Arab region known as the “Triangle of Death” because of frequent ambushes there of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops. Caldwell said troops encountered a lot of roadside bombs and other explosives during the three-day search, including in the area where the bodies were found.

The cause of death was “undeterminable at this point,” and the two bodies will be taken back to the United States for DNA tests to confirm the identities, Caldwell said.

The two soldiers disappeared after an insurgent attack Friday at a checkpoint by a Euphrates River canal, 12 miles south of Baghdad. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. The three men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.

The director of the Iraqi defense ministry’s operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies of the American soldiers showed signs of having been tortured. “With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way,” he said.

The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the American soldiers captive.

“We give the good news . . . to the Islamic nation that we have carried God’s verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders,” said the claim, which appeared on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements and videos.

“With God Almighty’s blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court” calling for the soldiers’ slaying, the statement said.

The statement said the soldiers were “slaughtered,” suggesting that al-Muhajer beheaded them. The Arabic word used in the statement, nahr, is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

The U.S. military has identified al-Muhajer as an Egyptian associate of al-Zarqawi also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

The killings would be the first acts of violence attributed to al-Muhajer since he was named al-Qaida in Iraq’s new leader in a June 12 Web message by the group. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7.

Al-Zarqawi made al-Qaida in Iraq notorious for beheading hostages and was believed to have killed two American captives himself – Nicholas Berg in April 2004 and Eugene Armstrong in September 2004.

Caldwell said Iraqi and American troops involved in the search for the missing soldiers killed three suspected insurgents and detained 34 in fighting that wounded seven U.S. servicemen.

Also, just hours before the two soldiers went missing Friday, a U.S. airstrike killed a key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group’s “religious emir,” he said.

Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, was killed with two foreign fighters in the same area where the soldiers’ bodies were found, the U.S. spokesman said. The three were trying to flee in a vehicle.

Al-Mashhadani was “a key leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials” and tied to the senior leadership, including al-Zarqawi and his alleged replacement, Caldwell said.

U.S. forces captured Mansour in July 2004 because of his ties to the militant groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, but the military let him go because he was not deemed an important terrorist figure at the time.

A witness to the attack Friday said on Sunday insurgents swarmed the checkpoint, killing the driver of a Humvee before taking two of his comrades captive.

Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer, said three Humvees at the checkpoint came under fire from many directions. Two Humvees went after the assailants but the third was ambushed.

He said seven masked gunmen, one carrying a heavy machine gun, killed the driver and took the two other U.S. soldiers captive. His account could not be verified independently.

Kidnappings of U.S. service members have been rare since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, despite the presence of about 130,000 forces.

The last U.S. soldier to be captured was Sgt. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, who was taken on April 9, 2004 after insurgents ambushed his fuel convoy. Two months later, a tape on Al-Jazeera purported to show a captive U.S. soldier shot, but the Army ruled it was inconclusive and Maupin remains listed as missing.

Caldwell said in addition to the two soldiers, a dozen Americans – including Maupin and 11 private citizens – are missing in Iraq. In addition, Capt. Michael Speicher, a Navy pilot, remains listed as missing in Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he said.

Copyright 2006, The Albuquerque Tribune. All Rights Reserved.