Bachmann Earns Two More Pants on Fires

By Robert Farley

June 26, 2009

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is no stranger to the Truth-O-Meter. So far, her comments have decidedly bent the needle to the left and, on one occasion, set the meter on fire. …

Recently, Bachmann went on record to declare that because of ACORN’s involvement in the census and other privacy concerns, she would only tell 2010 census takers how many people are in her household — and nothing more.

Here’s how she explained it in a Washington Times interview (which you can listen to here):

“Now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money,” Bachmann said. “And they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public. This is very concerning because the motherload of all data information will be from the census. And, of course, we think of the census as just counting how many people live in your home. Unfortunately, the census data has become very intricate, very personal (with) a lot of the questions that are asked.

“And I know for my family the only question that we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”

There’s a lot wrong in her statement, so we divided it into two Truth-O-Meter items. You can read the one on ACORN’s involvement here. And in this item, we’ll address Bachmann’s claim that she’s only constitutionally obligated to provide the number of people in her household.

Related rulings:

ACORN will be a paid partner with the Census Bureau and “they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public.”
– Michele Bachmann, Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

Ruling: Pants on Fire! | Details 

The Constitution only requires us to tell the Census Bureau “how many people are in our home.”
– Michele Bachmann, Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

Ruling: Pants on Fire! | Details

Related link: The Bachmann File 

PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More 

Acknowledgment: Content adapted from PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times. 

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Related post on this site:

Bachmann’s Census Paranoia (June 27 2009)

Credit: Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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U.S. Ready to Leave Iraqi Cities Despite Violence

Video

Iraqi troops prepare to stand alone (NBC Nightly News, June 28) – After six years in Iraq, American forces are drastically reshaping their posture – the first step towards bringing all combat forces home in 2011. (02:23) 

June 28, 2009

BAGHDAD – Death squads roamed the streets, slaughtering members of the rival Muslim sect. Bombs rocked Baghdad daily — until thousands of U.S. troops poured in two years ago, establishing neighborhood bases and taking control of the Iraqi capital and other cities.

By Tuesday, all but a small number of American soldiers will have left Baghdad and other urban areas, handing over security to Iraqi soldiers and police still largely untested as an independent fighting force.

State television has been showing a countdown clock with a fluttering Iraqi flag and the words “June 30: National Sovereignty Day.”

If the Iraqis can hold down violence, it will show the country is finally on the road to stability. If they fail, Iraq faces new bloodshed, straining a nation still divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said he was confident it was the right time for the move. …

‘They haven’t accomplished the task’

Privately, many U.S. officers worry the Iraqis will be overwhelmed if violence surges, having relied for years on the U.S. for everything from firepower to bottled water.

Many Iraqis also fear more violence after a spike in bombings and shootings last week that killed more than 250 people. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect more violence as insurgents try to stage a show of force in the days surrounding the withdrawal.

“The Americans are pulling out, but they haven’t accomplished the task that they came for, which is defeating terrorism,” said Miriwan Kerim, a 32-year-old watch peddler in Kirkuk. “The security situation is still fragile so the withdrawal will not restore us to square one but to square zero.”

President Barack Obama insists there’s no turning back. Handing over control of the cities brings him one step closer to fulfilling his campaign pledge to end an unpopular war that has claimed the lives of more than 4,300 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Despite public unease, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears eager to see the Americans leave and has urged Iraqis to hold steady against continued violence. Ahead of national elections next year, al-Maliki is portraying himself as the leader who defeated terrorism and ended the U.S. occupation.

He has declared June 30 a national holiday, telling a national television audience Saturday that the U.S. departure will “bolster Iraq’s security” and show the world that Iraqis can manage their own affairs.

Many Iraqis are also eager for the U.S. occupation to end, although more than 130,000 American troops remain in the country.

“It is good to see the departure of American troops as the first phase of ending the foreign occupation of our country,” said Ibrahim Ali, 26, a teacher from Kut. “Our troops are able to protect Iraqi cities, but they need more training and naval and air support.”

Others fear the security forces, especially the police, are still under the influence of Shiite militants and will not enforce the law evenhandedly.

Haggling over numbers and locations

The withdrawal, required under the U.S.-Iraqi security pact that took effect this year, marks the first major step toward withdrawing all American forces from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. Obama has said all combat troops will be gone by the end of August 2010.

American soldiers will remain in the cities to train and advise Iraqi forces as well as protect U.S. diplomatic missions and provincial reconstruction teams. With only hours to go, U.S. and Iraqi officials were still haggling over numbers and locations.

Combat operations will continue in rural areas but only with permission of the Iraqi government. U.S. troops will return to the cities only if asked.

The absence of tens of thousands of American troops who once lived, fought and patrolled the streets of Baghdad and other cities will be a major challenge for Iraqi forces.

With the deadline approaching, U.S. troops have been packing up their gear and moving to bases outside the cities, such as the giant Camp Victory complex on the western edge of Baghdad or Forward Operating Base Marez on the outskirts of Mosul. …

Not a single U.S. soldier could be seen on the streets in many Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods.

U.S. focus is on training

That was a far cry from the early years of the U.S. mission, when heavily armed U.S. soldiers, tanks and other armored vehicles rumbled through the streets bearing signs warning Iraqis they could be shot if they came too close.

The withdrawal from the cities marks an end to the U.S. troop surge strategy of 2007, when the U.S. rushed thousands of reinforcements to Iraq to stem fighting between Sunnis and Shiites.

Before the surge, the U.S. tried moving troops out of the cities, handing over security to the Iraqis. American units would patrol Baghdad by day and return to bases outside the city at night, leaving control of the streets to death squads and militias.

The surge changed all that. U.S. soldiers moved out of giant bases and into former schools, clinics and police stations where they lived and worked round-the-clock with their Iraqi partners.

Now, the focus of the U.S. effort will be training and mentoring. …

U.S. commanders to keep low profile

U.S. commanders plan to assume a low public profile for the first two weeks of July to avoid any perception they’re not honoring the agreement.

Most convoys will travel at night — even for the short distance between Camp Victory and Baghdad’s protected Green Zone. They will also travel with Iraqi escorts to show they are not operating unilaterally.

In Mosul, U.S. vehicles must be marked with signs to show they are noncombat forces. …

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Late update

Fireworks over Baghdad as U.S. Troops Leave 

Fireworks light up the night sky above Baghdad on Monday, June 29, 2009. U.S. troops are leaving Iraqi cities in the first step toward winding down the American war effort by the end of 2011. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

June 29, 2009

BAGHDAD – Iraqi forces assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities Tuesday after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a defining step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the midnight deadline passed for U.S. combat troops to finish their pullback to bases outside cities.

“The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security,” said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “We are now celebrating the restoration of sovereignty.” …

Fireworks, not bombings, colored the Baghdad skyline late Monday, and thousands attended a party in a park where singers performed patriotic songs. Loudspeakers at police stations and military checkpoints played recordings of similar tunes throughout the day, as Iraqi military vehicles decorated with flowers and national flags patrolled the capital.

“All of us are happy — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds on this day,” Waleed al-Bahadili said as he celebrated at the park. “The Americans harmed and insulted us too much.” …

The U.S. has not said how many troops will be in the cities in advisory roles, but the vast majority of the more than 130,000 U.S. forces remaining in the country will be in large bases scattered outside cities.

There have been some worries that the 650,000-member Iraqi military is not ready to maintain stability and deal with a stubborn insurgency.

Privately, many U.S. officers worry the Iraqis will be overwhelmed if violence surges, having relied for years on the Americans for nearly everything.

“We think they are ready,” U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. He said his main concern was that a lack of progress in efforts to reconcile Shiite, Sunnis and Kurds was feeding the violence that still marks the daily lives of many Iraqis.

The commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, Gen. David Petraeus, expressed concern about the spate of high-profile bombings but said the average daily number of attacks remained low at 10 to 15 compared with 160 in June 2007. …

Ahmad Al-rubaye / AFP – Getty Images A U.S. soldier leans his head on his rifle as he sits in the back of an armored vehicle prior to going out on a last patrol Monday.

Al-Maliki appears eager to see troops go

Despite some concerns, al-Maliki appears eager to see the Americans leave and has urged Iraqis to hold steady against any rise in violence. Ahead of national elections next year, al-Maliki is portraying himself as the leader who defeated terrorism and ended the U.S. occupation. …

While the U.S. troop surge strategy was successful in stemming the bloodshed, many Iraqis also saw it as an affront to their national pride.

On a visit to Ramadi, a Sunni city 70 miles west of the capital, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, told the AP that when the sun rises on Tuesday “Iraqi citizens will see no U.S. soldiers in their cities. They will see only Iraqi troops protecting them.”

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Security Developments in Iraq (June 22-27)

Following are security developments in Iraq on Saturday, June 27, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A motorbike bomb killed a civilian and wounded four others in the Baghdad’s southwestern district of Risala, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded three people in Baghdad’s northern Mustansiriya district, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Friday, June 26, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded two others when it struck their convoy in eastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces captured two militants carrying three suicide bomb vests in Abu Ghraib town, west of Baghdad, security source said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb in a motorbike market killed at least 13 people and wounded 45 in central Baghdad, police said.

DIWANIYA – A gunman opened fire on an aide to the Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday near his house in Diwaniya, 95 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A bomb planted in a parked car killed one Iraqi soldier on Thursday, wounding four policemen and nine civilians in northern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – Iraqi soldiers killed a militant attempting to plant a roadside bomb in eastern Mosul on Thursday, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked a convoy carrying a senior criminal judge in Mosul on Thursday, wounding one of his bodyguards, police said. The judge was not hurt.

BAGHDAD – A mortar round wounded four civilians when it landed in Baghdad’s central Karrada district on Thursday night, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded two civilians in Baghdad’s eastern Ur district on Thursday, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Thursday, June 25, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a bus wounded three civilians in Amil district, southwestern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A parked car bomb wounded five people in Bayaa, southwestern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb at a bus terminal killed two people and wounded 30 others in Bayaa, police and a hospital source said.

BAGHDAD – Two roadside bombs targeting a U.S. military patrol wounded nine U.S. soldiers in Rusafa, eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

FALLUJA – A roadside bomb killed five policemen, including an officer, in Amiriya al-Falluja, south of Falluja city, 32 miles west of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded three others on Wednesday in eastern Baghdad’s Baladiyat district, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded ten others on Wednesday in southern Baghdad’s Jihad district, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded four civilians on Wednesday in southern Baghdad’s Saidiya district, police said.

Mosul – A roadside bomb killed a police colonel when it struck his car on Wednesday in the north of Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A bomb in a trailer attached to a motorcycle killed at least 61 civilians and wounded about 116 others at a market in eastern Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, police said.

MOSUL – Seven civilians were wounded when an armed man hurled a hand grenade at a U.S. military patrol in a market in central Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – An insurgent was killed while he tried to plant a bomb on a roadside near Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb wounded three street cleaners as they emptied a garbage container in central Kirkuk, police said.

MOSUL – A car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded one soldier in central Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb killed a policeman and wounded another on Wednesday when it exploded near their patrol in central Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – Police in Mosul retrieved the body of a woman from the River Tigris on Wednesday with gunshot wounds to her head, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman on Wednesday during a drive-by shooting in southern Mosul, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb on Monday wounded one policeman and one bystander in the Yarmouk district of west-central Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA – A roadside bomb on Monday wounded a physician and three others in Falluja, 32 miles west of Baghdad, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Monday, June 22, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A bomb that exploded in a vegetable market killed five people and wounded 25 others in Husseiniya, on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb killed a member of a Sunni Arab anti-Qaeda militia and wounded two others when they chased gunmen who had opened fire on their checkpoint southwest of Kirkuk, 155 miles, north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A parked car bomb in central Baghdad’s Karrada district killed five people and wounded 20 others, police said.

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber detonated himself outside the Abu Ghraib municipal council building in west Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 13 others, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in east Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen opened fire on policemen in central Mosul, killing two, police said.

MOSUL – Police found a body with bullet wounds to the head and chest in central Mosul, police said.

KHANAQIN – A roadside bomb killed three soldiers near the town of Khanaqin, 100 miles northeast of Baghdad, the army said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol, killing three civilians and wounding 12 others near al-Hamza Square in Baghdad’s eastern district of Sadr City, police said. The victims were all students in a passing minibus.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded three people in Baghdad’s eastern Habibiya district, police said.  

Security Developments in Afghanistan (June 22-27)

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Saturday, June 27, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

HELMAND – Gunmen dressed as police killed eight policemen in an attack on a checkpoint in a town north of Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province late on Friday, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The bodies of the dead police had been taken to a hospital in Lashkar Gah. The gunmen fled after the attack, Ahmadi said.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Friday, June 26, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

EASTERN AFGHANISTAN – A soldier serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, ISAF said in a statement. No other details were available.

HELMAND – Three Afghan civilians were killed and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their car in southern Gireshk district, the Interior Ministry said.

HELMAND – U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces detained five militants during an operation in southern Nad Ali district on Thursday night, the U.S. military said.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Thursday, June 25, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

HELMAND – An Afghan civilian was shot dead by a NATO-led patrol on Sunday after he ignored signals to stop while driving his car towards the patrol near Babaji district, the alliance said in a statement.

KANDAHAR – Afghan police killed four insurgents and wounded three others in clashes near Zhari district, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

URUZGAN – Afghan and foreign troops killed around 23 Taliban fighters in ground and air assaults during an operation in the southern Tirin Kot district overnight, Afghan army commander in the southern region, Sher Mohammad Zazai, said.

ZABUL – Taliban militants gunned down a detective officer and his police body guard in the provincial capital, Qalat, the provincial governor, Mohammad Ashraq Nasiri, said.

ZABUL – Four Taliban insurgents were killed after ambushing an Afghan army patrol in the southern Arghandab district, Nasiri also said.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

KUNDUZ – Three German soldiers working under NATO-led forces were killed after coming under attack near the northern city of Kunduz, Germany’s Defense Minister said.

KANDAHAR – Three Afghan policemen were killed and four others wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in the southern Dand district on Monday evening, said provincial police chief Matiullah Qateh.

HELMAND – A roadside bomb hit a passenger mini-van, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding five others in the southern Nahr Saraj district, the Interior Ministry said.

FARAH – Two Afghan soldiers and nine Taliban insurgents were killed during a four hour gun battle in the Shiwan district of Western Farah province on Monday, the Defense Ministry said. Four Afghan soldiers and several insurgents were also wounded during the clash, it said.

GHAZNI – A suicide car bomber targeting a foreign troop convoy killed two Afghan civilians southwest of Ghazni city, provincial police chief Khial Baz Sherzai told Reuters. The foreign soldiers did not suffer any casualties or damage to their vehicles, Sherzai said.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Monday, June 22, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

KHOST – A bomb blast and a suicide bomb attack killed eight civilians and wounded more than 40 others in Afghanistan’s southeastern town of Khost on Monday, a provincial official said.

KHOST – NATO troops shot dead an Afghan civilian in a car in Khost province in the southeast after the car failed to stop following a warning, the alliance said.

KANDAHAR – A suicide car bomber killed three Afghan soldiers in southern Kandahar province on Monday, a provincial official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

NANGARHAR – An explosion went off on Monday in a government ammunition dump in eastern Nangarhar, killing a child and wounding 20 others, including 18 civilians, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. Authorities were investigating whether the blast was an accident or sabotage.

KHOST – Four Afghan guards of a Western security firm were wounded on Monday in an ambush by Taliban guerrillas on a road in southeastern Khost province, officials said.

KABUL – A roadside bomb hit a vehicle of NATO-led forces on the southern outskirts of Kabul on Monday, wounding three soldiers of the alliance, an official for the force said. The Taliban said they were behind the blast.

HELMAND – A roadside bomb hit a passenger bus and injured three civilians in Helmand province in the south of the country, the Interior Ministry said.

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Following is a compilation of notable reports and opinions regarding U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she will refuse to complete the 2010 U.S. Census beyond reporting the number of members in her household.

Bachmann’s Latest Irrational Fear About the Census: It Was Used to Intern the Japanese 

By Ali Frick
ThinkProgress
June 25, 2009

Last week, Rep. Michele “I’m not a kook” Bachmann (R-MN) boasted about breaking the law in refusing to complete the 2010 Census. The Census is the perfect boogeyman for Bachmann in that it unites her conspiracy theories about the Obama administration with her monomaniacal determination to crush the community organizing group ACORN, which is one of over 30,000 partner organizations helping to promote the 2010 Census among the people it reaches.

On Fox News this morning, Bachmann repeated her determination to break the law. She also suggested that the Obama administration could use the Census data for nefarious purposes — including the imprisonment of Americans in concentration camps:

BACHMANN: If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.

There are many things wrong with Bachmann and host Megyn Kelly’s so-called analysis: First, both women were shocked that the Census would ask for people’s telephone numbers. However, that information is not required by law [PDF], and is used only to contact recipients who have incomplete forms.

Second, Bachmann is confusing the 2010 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS), a long-form survey sent out to one in 40 households (0.0028 percent of the American public) each year. The Census, sent out once every ten years, asks only about one’s age, race, and the type of home one lives in. The ACS, started in 1996, collects more detailed data used to distribute more than $300 billion in federal funds to local communities.

Most importantly, the questions that Bachmann is so concerned about — questions she suggests might somehow lead to internment — are not new questions (not to mention they frequently overlap with information given to the IRS every year). Census questions on race have been asked since 1790 [PDF]; home language since 1890; rent since 1880; and income since 1940. The Census has asked what kind of heating fuel heats Americans’ homes since 1940.

Finally, it’s a federal crime for any Census worker to violate the confidentiality of the Census form, punishable by a federal prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

Update: A Census official contacted ThinkProgress to clarify that, contrary to what some media outlets report, ACORN will not have any role in collecting Census responses. ACORN is simply one of thousands of partners who have agreed to help promote the fact that the Census bureau will soon have many job openings.

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Michele Bachmann’s Census Theories Too Much for Glenn Beck

By Jason Linkins
Huffington Post
June 26, 2009

As we related yesterday, Michele Bachmann has drawn a line in the sand, and will not fill out the Census, and no one really cares because who in America really wants to see government resources allocated to the Bachmann demographic, anyway? Nevertheless, Bachmann is the Neda Agha Soltan of fighting ACORN and the Census. “Why does the government need our phone numbers?” complains Bachmann, making me wonder if she plans on robo-calling her constituents come re-election time. You know I’ll be watching for that!

Anyway, yesterday, Michele Bachmann went on the Glenn Beck Common Sense Comedy Hour to talk about all of this. Understandably, Bachmann is concerned with whether the government should know about its citizens’ “mental stability.” …

But here’s the revelatory part of Bachmann’s conversation: It appears that there actually is a point at which you can even out-bonkers Glenn Beck! Watch as the video gets to about the two-minute mark. That’s when Bachmann starts up her “OMGZ! THE INTERNMENT CAMPZ” spiel. Beck starts shaking his head in disbelief, and then just shuts her down, mid-thought! Is that a bridge too far for Glenn Beck, who runs the most realistic Doom Room in Cable news? Maybe! Of course, I can’t help but notice that Beck set Bachmann up perfectly to proffer that answer.

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Bachmann Won’t Fill Out All of Census; Says It’s Private

By Bob Von Sternberg
Star Tribune
June 26, 2009

Rep. Michele Bachmann, citing concerns about government intrusiveness, says she won’t fully fill out the U.S. Census form next year, even though that’s a violation of federal law.

In a television interview broadcast Thursday, the Minnesota Republican repeated an assertion she first made last week that she will provide the Census Bureau only with the number of people in her household. The other detailed questions, she said, amount to an invasion of her family’s privacy.

“I’m saying, for myself and my family, our comfort level is we will comply with the Constitution Article I Section II,” Bachmann told a Fox News interviewer. “We will give the number of people in our home, and that’s where we’re going to draw the line.”

That section of the Constitution created the House of Representatives and specifies that a decennial “enumeration” will be used to apportion the chamber’s seats.

Under federal law, it’s a misdemeanor to “refuse or willfully neglect to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers,” punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. However, the Census Bureau notes that it is not a prosecuting agency and that refusing to answer its questions is not likely to result in a fine.

Bureau spokeswoman Shelly Lowe said Bachmann is “misreading” the law because “it’s mandatory to answer the questions.”

In her interview, Bachmann said that “Americans are being compelled to give this information” in violation of the Constitution. She added: “I’m not encouraging Americans not to fill out the census.”

Questions about Americans’ household incomes and commuting times are intrusive, said the Sixth District congresswoman. “These are very intricate questions that are being asked of the American people, and I think it’s time as a lawmaker that we come together and start looking out for the American individual and their privacy rights, as well.”

All Americans will be asked next year to answer questions about their name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure.

A small percentage will be sent what is called the American Community Survey, a far more detailed set of questions that is conducted periodically and will be, in effect, melded with answers from the short census form. As with the short census form, it is mandatory to answer that survey, according to the Census Bureau.

Those questions delve into such things as income, citizenship, disability and educational attainment and appear to generally reflect questions asked in previous censuses on the now-canceled long form.

“I am just not comfortable with the way this census is being handled … with the questions that are being asked,” Bachmann said.

Concerns about ACORN

Bachmann also has said she fears that ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire over its voter registration efforts last year, will be part of the Census Bureau’s door-to-door information collection efforts.

For months, she has been criticizing the group, which has become a high-profile Republican target.

ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) is one of 40,000 organizations nationwide that are working with the Census Bureau to promote the census, said Nick Kimball, a spokesman for the Commerce Department, the bureau’s parent agency.

“They’re getting no money from the Census Bureau, and it’s incredibly misleading to insinuate that ACORN will be going door to door, collecting information. It’s simply not true,” he said.

In her comments Thursday, Bachmann also linked the census to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

“Between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up,” she said. “I’m not saying that that’s what the administration is planning to do, but I am saying that private personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.”

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Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann Freak Out over the 2010 Census

By Jason Easley
PoliticusUSA.com
June 26, 2009

Michele Bachmann was on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show today, and the result was an absolute panic over the 2010 Census. Beck worried that by not filling out the Census the government could take away his gun. Bachmann also continued to claim that the Census information could used to put Americans into internment camps.

Here is the video from Media Matters:

She continued, “Here is the other thing that will happen. From history the United States government between 1942 and 1947 passed the second War Powers Act. They used the U.S. Census information to round up the Japanese and put them in the internment camps. Americans were told that they would have their information used against them. They did.” …

Doesn’t it undercut Bachmann’s entire privacy argument, if the government is able to get the information they need by asking your neighbors? How much confidential information can your neighbors know about you? I hate to tell Michele Bachmann this, but if she has filled out an income tax form, Uncle Sam has her phone number. Heck, if the government wants to, they can listen to her phone calls.

Beck and Bachmann are the Ken and Barbie of conspiracy theorists. Bachmann continues to confuse the Census with the American Community Survey, which is not sent to every American. Bachmann and Beck don’t care about facts. They are out weave a giant Obama, ACORN, Census, concentration camps conspiracy theory that is as silly as it is crazy.

——

Rep. Bachmann: Obama Could Use the Census to Send People to Camps

By Jason Easley
PoliticusUSA.com
June 25, 2009

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann was on Fox News this morning tying her conspiracy theories about President Obama to the Census. Bachmann united her Obama concentration camp theory and the Census, by stating that the Census was used to round up Japanese Americans and send them to internment camps during World War II, and Obama could do the same. …

Bachmann was on FNC to further her Census and ACORN conspiracy theory: “Finally, I am very concerned about ACORN. Remember, it was the Obama White House that wanted to pull the Census into the White House, and conduct the Census. Why is this important? The Census is the motherload of all data collection in the United States, and now ACORN, which in many places has served as the electioneering arm of the Democrat Party, now ACORN is being encouraged to become a national partner in the Census.”

Then she warped some American history: “If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.”

First of all, the Census requires no personal information, like a telephone number on the form. As Think Progress pointed out, Bachmann is confusing the Census with the American Community Survey, which is sent out to 1 in 40 American homes. As you can see from the 2010 Census form [PDF], no personal information is collected. Thirdly, it is a federal crime for any census taker to violate the confidentiality of a respondent.

Also nothing has changed with who is conducting the Census. Obama did not pull the Census into the White House. It is the same system that has been used since 1970. ACORN will not be conducting the Census. The organization may help recruit census takers, but they will not be involved in the census taking itself. The Obama administration did not outsource the Census to ACORN.

This is simply more baseless Bachmann paranoia. …

——

Bachmann Warns Of Link Between Census, Japanese Internment

By Eric Kleefeld
Talking Points Memo
June 25, 2009

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is taking her refusal to fully fill out her Census form, which is a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, to a whole new level: Invoking the memory of the Japanese internment during World War II, and the evil role that the Census played in it! … Full story 

—– 

Michele Bachmann Has Given Me a Reason to Go On

Political satire by John Andreini
Minneapolis Examiner
June 26, 2009

During the Great Depression, our grandparents would find a brief respite from their difficult circumstances by reading the Sunday comics. The adventures of Superman, Buck Rogers, Krazy Kat, Popeye, Dick Tracy, and Little Orphan Annie helped people enjoy some humor in life and a bit of escapism from the hard times of the day.

With a few exceptions, today’s Sunday comics are neither comical nor engaging, so those of us struggling through the latest economic disaster to befall this country have to look elsewhere for cheap thrills.

I’ve found my Krazy Kat in Michele Bachmann. While routinely scanning news headlines on my favorite political sites, my heart races with anticipation every time the name “Bachmann” pops up in 14 pt. type. I know I can count on the story beneath that headline to rock my world.

Ooops, she did it again. Michele has been announcing to anyone who will listen, and don’t ask me why anyone would except those of us who need our daily giggles, that she’s not going to fill out all of her 2010 Census form. From the woman who knows more about climatology than all the world’s experts combined, we learn that the Census can somehow be linked to internment camps and other nefarious government plots to shackle and silence all real Americans … especially the lunatics.

Oddly, Bachmann didn’t raise these dire concerns several years ago when the Bush Cartel was asking Congress to let it wiretap and open the email every American with a pulse. That was Bush. Obama, the shape-shifting demon raised by terrorists in a secret laboratory in the mountains of Afghanistan in order to bring America to its knees from inside the Oval Office, is a different story.

I was appalled when Minnesotans of the Sixth District reelected Bachmann back in 2008, but I have a very different perspective on the whole affair now. She’s funnier than any Sunday comic (with the exception of Dilbert) and her every insane utterance is the stuff of which legends are made. Michele has given me reason to get out of bed every morning.

You go, crazy girl.

——

Census Briefs Bachmann’s Office on Privacy Concerns

By Cathy Wurzer
Minnesota Public Radio
June 26, 2009

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., says she will leave most of her U.S. Census survey blank next year, even though that violates the law. Bachmann told Fox News she is “just not comfortable” answering questions about income and commuting time. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer discusses the situation with a Census Bureau official.

Guest: Steve Buckner, spokesman for the U.S. Census Bureau

Broadcast date: Morning Edition, 06/26/2009, 8:45 a.m. 

Listen (04:30)

Related report

Census Bureau Reassures Bachmann about Privacy

By Greta Cunningham 
Minnesota Public Radio
June 26, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — A Census Bureau spokesman says his office has met with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s staff about her concerns over the 2010 census.

Bachmann told Fox News Thursday that she won’t fill out most of the census form, only the number of people in her household. Bachmann, a Republican, says she’s not comfortable answering some of the questions.

Census bureau spokesman Steve Buckner says the census form is just ten questions long, although a small percentage of people may be randomly asked to complete a longer survey.

“So these would include questions such as income, education levels, how long it take you to get to work,” he said. “All of these things are actually tied to federal programs, laws or judicial rulings that say we must collect data on these questions. So Congress approves these questions so they can now administer some of the programs and laws that they’ve passed.”

Buckner says any census worker who violates the privacy rules faces 5 years in prison and a $250,000 dollar fine.

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After Census Dither, Take a Reality Check

Bachmann finds conspiracies in the strangest places.

Editorial
Star Tribune
June 26, 2007

Conspiracy theories have been a constant in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s political career since she first ran for the Stillwater school board in the late 1990s. She made her initial foray into politics by claiming that the Profile of Learning amounted to social engineering. Her anti-gay-marriage ideas were rooted in notions of sinister forces bent on destroying traditional marriage. Her bizarre rants within the past year against “anti-American” members of Congress, a global currency and government-mandated youth “reeducation camps” all exhibit the same disturbing tendency. She sees threats that few other elected officials perceive, let alone describe on national television.

Another example came this week as Bachmann sounded a shrill alarm against an American institution: the U.S. Census. In yet another TV talk show appearance, the telegenic Republican decried the population survey as “government intrusion,” then warned darkly that census information was used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II. The implication, of course, was that it could be used to round up Americans again. Bachmann’s backpedaling “I’m not saying that is what the administration is planning to do” did nothing to squelch those fears, especially considering that she was appearing on the Fox TV show of Glenn Beck, who has spent the months since the presidential election painting apocalyptic visions of the future.

This is hard-core conspiracy theory, the likes of which are rarely seen outside the most extreme parts of the blogosphere. Even Beck seemed taken aback by the government round-up rhetoric.

While Bachmann certainly is entitled to her outside-the-mainstream beliefs, she’s too often crossed a critical line. The two-term congresswoman from Minnesota’s Sixth District bluntly said she will not fully fill out the census form, a misdemeanor punishable by up to $5,000. Her census fear-mongering clearly could push others to do the same. What Bachmann is doing — on national television, no less — is encouraging people to break the law. That’s not right-wing. That’s not conservative. That’s just wrong. …

Read more 

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Annenberg Political Fact Check

June 26, 2007

The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Fact Check monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Question: Is ACORN providing workers for the 2010 census?

Did the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) sign on as a “national partner” with the U.S. Census Bureau to sign up over 1 million temporary workers to help with the 2010 census? 

Answer: No. ACORN employees will not be taking the census. The group is one of more than 30,000 “partners” that will help publicize the event.

ACORN has indeed signed on to partner with the Census Bureau in connection with the 2010 census, along with about 30,000 other groups at the time of this writing. … The Census Bureau’s Web site includes an open invitation to sign on, and the agency says it expects to have more than 100,000 partners by the time the process is over. That may even be an underestimate: In 2000, it signed up 140,000 partners. …

Read the full report

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6/29/09 Update

The Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact has just given Rep. Michele Bachmann two “Pants on Fire” ratings on the Truth-O-Meter for her incorrect interpretation of Constitutional authority regarding the census and her false allegations regarding ACORN’s involvement in the 2010 census.

PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. …

Bachmann: The Constitution only requires us to tell the census “how many people are in our home.”

Bachmann’s claim wrong, and illegal

Bachmann: ACORN will be a paid partner with the Census Bureau and “they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public.”

ACORN not getting money, not collecting data

——

7/4/09 Update

GOP to Bachmann: End Census Boycott

By Ed O’Keefe
Federal Eye blog

July 2, 2009

… At some point last month, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she would refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household on her Census questionnaire. She argued that questions other than how many people live in her home are unconstitutional and feared that political groups, including ACORN, might try to sway final Census numbers.

Republican colleagues have now called her boycott illogical and illegal.

“Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census. To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement. The trio is members the House Census Oversight Subcommittee.

They argue that her boycott only increases the likelihood of political interference, because Census staffers and volunteers would have to visit her home to do a followup interview.

“Anyone who completes and returns their census form will remove any need for a census taker to visit their residence,” the group said.

Census officials stress that the agency’s community partners (including ACORN) might go door-to-door, but only to promote participation and not to collect personal information. Bachmann’s statements also seemed to confuse the 2010 Decennial Census questionnaire with the American Community Survey, a longer questionnaire that gets randomly sent to households every year to ask a series of Census and economic questions.

Observers have called Bachmann’s Census statements “wildly wrong” and her statements on various issues have raised Eyebrows before (there’s even a blog that chronicles her activities). Still, her concerns about Census questionnaires are nothing new: several prominent Republican leaders have raised concerns in the past.

[Informative reader posts in Comments section]

——

7/11/09 Update

On July 10 the St. Cloud Times offered readers an informative look at the particulars of the decennial U.S. census, in response to the national controversy about 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann’s recent declaration ”that she won’t completely fill out her 2010 census form, calling it an invasion of privacy.”

Specifically, on June 17, Rep. Bachmann stated on the Washington Times’ morning radio show that she would refuse to answer the 2010 census questions, beyond reporting the number of members in her household: 

BACHMANN: The mother lode of all data information will be from the census. … Unfortunately, the census data has become very intricate, very personal, a lot of the questions that are asked. I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.

Listen:

As first reported by ThinkProgress, “Bachmann explained that her fears over the Census were in large part due to the fact that her Number-One Enemy, ACORN, could possibly be involved. (The group might help recruit some of the 1.4 million people needed to go door-to-door to count every American.) She insinuated that former senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) had lost his reelection bid because of ‘fraudulent votes’ perpetrated by ACORN.”

BACHMANN: This is what ACORN will do. They will get multiple fraudulent voter registration forms, stuff the registrar’s office with them, in hopes that maybe not all fraudulent registrations will find people at the polls voting. But there may be some people who get through. And sometimes you don’t often need many in order to sway an election one way or another. I come from Minnesota. We’re still in a recount with our U.S. Senate race between Sen. Norm Coleman and the challenger Al Franken. Sen. Coleman won the race on election day, but that was challenged repeatedly, over and over, with what we feel may be fraudulent vote [sic], and we’re very concerned about what comes forward.

“At the end of the interview, Bachmann declares it to be a ‘badge of honor’ to be a ‘target’ of the press,” reported ThinkProgress.

On June 25 PolitiFact, the Pulitzer prize-winning project of the St. Petersburg Times dedicated to helping the public “find the truth in American politics,” published a fact-check of Bachmann’s assertions regarding the census.

Read PolitiFact’s analysis

——

7/13/09 Update

Bachmann Bill Targets Privacy in the Census

By Eric Roper
The Big Question blog
Star Tribune
July 13, 2009

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has made national headlines in recent weeks for her criticisms of the U.S. Census, is co-sponsoring legislation which would limit the national survey to four questions: name, age, date of response and number of people living in one household.

Bachmann, who is sponsoring the bill along with its author, Texas Republican Tim Poe, previously said that she would not answer all of the questions on the Census, drawing criticism from a group of Republicans on the Census Oversight Subcommittee. “Boycotting the constitutionally-mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” wrote Reps. Patrick McHenry, Lynn Westmoreland and John Mica.

In a statement today announcing the legislation, Bachmann wrote that the Census is a necessary tool, especially for determining the number of Representatives per state and directing taxes. “But throughout the years, additional questions of a more personal nature were added so that the federal government could have more detailed information to make and implement its ever-expanding public policy,” Bachmann wrote. “A lot of Americans – myself included, have real concerns about the ultimate protection of our sensitive personal information.”

Questions that the bill would eliminate include the race, ethnicity, relationship status and sex of the respondent.

The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. 

——

7/20/09 Update

Worry Spreads Along with Bachmann’s Census Opposition

By Andy Birkey
The Minnesota Independent
July 20, 2009

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) 

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s opposition to the U.S. Census is spreading, according to the Bakersfield Californian. A Bakersfield man is boycotting the Census, and the paper thinks Bachmann’s campaign might be the cause. …

“Talk about Big Brother,” Kent Lenhard told The Californian. “I read it over twice and thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’”

Lenhard says he won’t fill out the American Community Survey, a long survey sent to a random sampling of households by the Census Bureau each yeah. The paper speculates that Bachmann’s campaign against the census is Lenhard’s motivation. …

——

7/21/09 Update

Unlike Bachmann, Klobuchar Trusts the Census

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

By Emily Kaiser
City Pages
July 21, 2009

Sen. Amy Klobuchar came out against Rep. Michele Bachmann’s recent tirade against the Census, urging Minnesotans to fill it out to ensure we get our congressional seats and funding in the coming years.

Bachmann has been loud and proud about her plan to boycott the U.S. Census in 2010 by only filling out how many people live in her household. She thinks the questions are too personal and she fears ACORN is going to misuse the information.

During a Joint Economic Committee hearing, Klobuchar stated the importance the the Census and Minnesotans filling it out so we don’t lose a congressional seat, according to Minnesota Public Radio. …

In addition to her boycott, Bachmann has created a bill to change the Census and limit the questions asked. Her Census conspiracies aren’t exactly taking root. Even her fellow Republicans told her to shut up. Many publications have debunked many of her claims, including her statement that ACORN members will be going door-to-door collecting personal information.

——

7/22/09 Update

Klobuchar: Fill Out Census Form Bachmann is Shunning

By Bob Von Sternberg
Star Tribune
June 22, 2009

Excerpts

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is pushing her Minnesota constituents — hard — this week to fill out the 2010 Census, saying federal dollars and congressional representation are at stake.

That puts her at odds with Sixth District Rep. Michele Bachmann, who set off a firestorm a month ago, when she said she wouldn’t fully fill out the census form, saying it’s an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

Although Klobuchar did not specifically criticize Bachmann’s statements, she said today that she wanted “to get countervailing views about the census and privacy issues.” … I want to get out the correct information.”

Bachmann has stuck to her contention that the Constitution requires her to only provide the Census Bureau with the number of people in her household, even though failure to fill out the form violates federal law. …

Her spokesman, Dave Dziok, said today Bachmann has continued to say “it’s a matter for families to decide on their own. She’s not doing an all-out press campaign to encourage people to not fill out the census. She’s absolutely not encouraging people to boycott it.” …

Klobuchar initially weighed in on next year’s census Tuesday during a congressional Joint Economic Hearing, noting that Minnesota could potentially lose a congressional seat next year if its population is undercounted. …

During her testimony Tuesday, she said, “The census has a profound impact on Minnesota’s communities. It’s important that every Minnesotan is counted, so we get our fair share of congressional seats and federal funding.”  

She cited a recent analysis by the state demographer’s office, which found that missing a single person from every township in the state could mean the loss of a congressional seat.  The office also estimates that 100 Minnesotans missing from the Census count could result in the loss of $1 million to $1.2 million in federal funds to the state over a decade.

Five former census directors testified during the hearing “and they assured me and the other committee members that all of the information collected will be kept private,” Klobuchar said. “These five witnesses oversaw the census in both Republican and Democratic administrations.” …
——

RELATED REPORTS ON THIS SITE

2 ‘Pants on Fires’ for Bachmann (June 30, 2009)

Census: Bachmann ‘Pants on Fire’ (July 1, 2009)

ACORN: Bachmann ‘Pants on Fire’ (July 2, 2009)

——

SIDEBAR

Some think moon landing was faked

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Angry Iraqis Demand Protection from Bombings

Mourners carry the coffin of a relative who was killed when a bomb exploded at a Baghdad market on June 24, 2009. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Reuters and The Associated Press via MSNBC.com
June 25, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Hundreds of angry Iraqis gathered on Thursday around the wreckage of a market bombing in Baghdad where 78 people died, demanding better protection from the government after U.S. troops pull back to bases.

A string of blasts has cast doubt on Iraqi forces’ ability to keep the lid on a stubborn insurgency. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that more bombs and attacks are to be expected in the days before and after U.S. troops complete a withdrawal from cities and major urban centers on June 30.

More than 160 people have died in bombings over the past five days.

The violence continued Thursday as a bombing at a bus station in a Shiite neighborhood in southwest Baghdad killed at least seven people and wounded 31 others, police said. Another three bombs and a mortar killed two more people around the capital.

The U.S. military said nine American soldiers were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks against a convoy in eastern Baghdad.

And in the once-turbulent but recently secure western city of Fallujah, officials said a roadside bomb destroyed a police vehicle and killed all five policemen inside. …

Residents at the site of Wednesday’s bombing in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum sobbed and hugged each other, and many furiously cursed the authorities. The blast came four days after U.S. soldiers handed control of the area to Iraqi forces.

Wednesday’s attack also wounded 143 people. It was the deadliest in more than two years in the area, which is heavily controlled and where people entering the district have to pass through numerous checkpoints manned by Iraqi army and police. …

According to Iraqi Army Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, Wednesday’s bomb was built using about 441 pounds of high explosives packed with steel bearings and other metal objects. It was apparently loaded on a motorcycle pulling a cart.

“Most of victims of the explosion that occurred in Sadr City had small steel balls and nails in their bodies,” said Dr. Mahmoud Mizaal at Sadr City hospital.

Most of the attacks so far have targeted Shiites or communities with predominantly Shiite populations. The killing spree began on June 20 with a massive truck bomb that killed 82 people in a mainly Shiite town near the northern city of Kirkuk, which was the deadliest bombing so far this year. …

Thursday’s deadly bombing in Baghdad occurred when a parked car bomb exploded inside the Baiyaa district’s bus station, police officials told The Associated Press. …

——

Late update

Motorcycle Bombs Kill 20 in Baghdad

Video

Motorcycle bomb hits Iraq market (MSNBC, June 26) – A motorcycle strapped with explosives blows up in a crowded Baghdad market, the latest attack in Iraq. MSNBC.com’s Dara Brown reports. (00:42)

June 26, 2009

BAGHDAD – Motorcycle bombs killed at least 20 people in separate attacks in Baghdad Friday, most in a crowded bazaar, part of an apparent trend toward increased use of motorcycles to thwart stepped-up security measures.

The attacks were the latest in a week of violence that has killed more than 250 people, with just four days to go before the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from cities.

The spike has raised fresh doubts about the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security and fight a stubborn insurgency as their American partners become less visible. …

The deadliest blast occurred just after 9 a.m. when a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded in a market packed with young people buying or selling the vehicles in central Baghdad, according to police and hospital officials. …

Attacks in Iraq have continued on a daily basis despite the security gains of the past two years, but many of the recent bombings have been larger in terms of numbers killed.

Police and hospital officials gave the death toll and said more than 50 people also were wounded.

Hours later, another explosives-laden motorcycle exploded in western Baghdad, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others.

New weapon?

The use of motorcycles underscores the resilience of militants as they adopt new tactics to penetrate the concrete walls and other measures aimed at preventing car bombs and suicide attacks.

The Associated Press has recorded five booby-trapped motorcycle bombings this month in Iraq that have killed at least 104 people, including one on June 24 in Baghdad’s Sadr City that killed 78 civilians and injured another 143 — one of the deadliest bombings this year.

Before that, no parked motorcycle bombings had been reported in Baghdad since Aug. 19, 2007, when a motorcycle exploded in central Baghdad, killing one civilian and injuring four others.

Between January 25, 2007 and December 4, 2008, only five incidents involving motorcycle bombs were reported around Iraq, killing 25 people and wounding 110 more. …

Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement is gearing up to contest national elections on Jan. 30, blamed the Americans for the recent bombings, saying they were using them as an excuse not to withdraw completely.

Sadrist protesters took to the streets in Baghdad’s Sadr City district and other cities after Friday prayers, burning American flags and denouncing the violence. …

——

Related report

Bomb Kills 69 at Shiite Market in Baghdad

Residents stand at the site of a bombing in the main Shiite district in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, June 25, 2009. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

June 24, 2009

BAGHDAD – A bomb ripped through a crowded market in Baghdad’s main Shiite district on Wednesday, killing at least 69 people and wounding more than 100 less than a week before a deadline for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq’s urban areas.

A series of blasts this week have killed more than 160 people, as U.S. and Iraqi officials warned they expected more violence before the U.S. withdrawal from cities.

The 7 p.m. blast at the market appeared to be timed to maximize casualties by striking shoppers buying food for their evening meal.

The explosives were loaded on a motorized pushcart and shrapnel was blown more than 600 yards away, a police officer said. …

Four days earlier, a truck bombing killed 82 people in a mainly Shiite town near the northern city of Kirkuk, which was the deadliest bombing so far this year.

Back-to-back suicide bombings by female attackers also killed 71 people outside a Shiite shrine in Baghdad on April 24. …

Iraqi forces ready?

The recent high-profile bombings have raised concerns about the readiness of Iraqi forces to provide security around the country without the immediate help of the U.S. troops remaining in Iraq.

According to a security pact that came into force in January, most of the American troops will be housed on large bases outside the capital and other cities — unable to react unless called on for help by the Iraqis.

Many Iraqis oppose the presence of the Americans, whom they consider an occupying force, and military officials hope the withdrawal timeline will help stem support for the insurgency. …

——

Earlier report 6/21/09

Truck bomb kills at least 75 in northern Iraq, 250 wounded 

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad Says Obama is Acting Like Bush

Video

Ahmadinejad demands apology from Obama (NBC Today, June 25) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is accusing President Obama of interfering in Iran. Meanwhile, the opposition vows to continue protesting the disputed election. (01:48)

June 25, 2009

TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama of behaving like his White House predecessor and called on him to apologize for what he called U.S. interference following Iran’s elections.

Obama has ramped up his previously muted criticism, saying he was “appalled and outraged” by a crackdown on protests which followed Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

“Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things … our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Before the election, the Obama administration had indicated that it was interested in reaching out to Iran, after years of a diplomatic freeze following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has given no clear signal that it is interested in Obama’s overture, and in the wake of the election, the U.S. leader has slowly ratcheted up his criticism of Iran. …

—— 

Commentary

Purely in terms of personal attributes, just how similar are Barack Obama and George W. Bush? And how, specifically do they differ from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Following are their psychological profiles, developed at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.   

Personality Profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (June 11, 2009)

Personality Profile of Barack Obama (February 21, 2009)

Personality Profile of George W. Bush (April 6, 2000)

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The first issue, written and drawn by Prendergast and inked by various Minnesota artists, has 24 pages, a color cover (by Ken Avidor), and a black and white interior.

Copies may be ordered at biasedliberalmedia.com for $4.95 (which includes shipping and handling within the continental United States).

Following is a book review by Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo.

The Bachmann Comic: Our Review

Book review by Eric Kleefeld
Talking Points Memo
June 23, 2009 

We’ve received our review copy of “False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story,” the new comic book from our friends at the Dump Bachmann Web site, documenting the rise and extreme statements of our favorite House GOP backbencher, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). It’s now in print in Minnesota, and anybody can order it online. So how is it?

As both a comic book fan and a Bachmann fan, I quite enjoyed it, but my hope is that the first issue was really laying a foundation for more to come. This comic introduces us to Bachmann, but then doesn’t so much focus on her as it does on the important information we need to truly understand her political prominence — the nature of extreme right-wing culture that has bequeathed a politician such as her to our national dialogue.

Right from the cover, which has a wacky cartoonish feeling as if it were somehow pencilled by Sergio Aragones and inked by R. Crumb, you know we’re dealing with a special politician:

Click on image to enlarge

And sure enough, the first page introduces us to Bachmann herself, and her call for revolution against the Marxist tyranny of President Obama:

Click on image to enlarge

From there, much of the focus is on the religious right and talk-radio culture. A specific grievance is that the hard religious right doesn’t honestly call itself what it is — a theocratic movement — but conceals its intentions under the label of “social conservative,” with the media’s complicity:

Click on image to enlarge

As for Bachmann’s own rise, we get to see how she’s mobilized the hard-right activists in her area to take control of the local Republican Party. And here’s this creepy eyewitness story of when Bachmann warned an intra-GOP rival with the repeated refrain, “You will pay, you will pay…”:

Click on image to enlarge

[Read it from the horse's mouth: "Bachmann’s mean streak"]

And now that she’s risen up, Bachmann is a hero to the right-wing fringe not just in her own distict, but across her state — with a following that’s spread across the country:

Click on image to enlarge

Which brings us to the next-issue teaser — hinting that we’ll get more into all the details of Bachmann’s own career, such as when she talked to God about running for office (and God talked back!), how she kissed then-President George W. Bush and wouldn’t let go of him, and other fun events:

Click on image to enlarge

All in all, it’s a fun first effort, from some folks who have been monitoring her career and mobilizing against her online since way back when she was just a puny state Senator. Let’s see what the next issue holds.

——

Related reports

Close Reading of Ken Avidor Cover

The Comics Reporter
June 18, 2009

There’s a series of comic books out there featuring women in and sort of in politics that has received an inexplicable amount of attention for how clumsily they’re done. A similar comic PR-wise with almost nothing in common with those comics content-wise is False Witness, a comic about Congresswoman Michele Bachmann by Bill Prendergast and a number of other Minnesota cartoonists. It has a bit of an edge about it concept-wise as well, as in underground comix tradition Prendergast asserts that the book is a corrective to local media coverage.
Here’s one of those editorials-as-promo pieces, where Prendergast dissects an astounding-looking cover by Ken Avidor.

Lots of Interest in Bachmann Comic Book “False Witness”

By Ken Avidor
Dump Bachmann
May 29, 2009

Wednesday [May 27], I put up a post about Bill Prendergast’s comic previewed in the City Pages this week. Wonkette posted a link to the False Witness website (and us).

Eric Kleefeld at TPMDC has a preview of the cover and so does Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent.

The comic blogs also took notice … Kevin Melrose at Robot 6 and Heidi MacDonald at the Publishers Weekly comic blog The Beat.

Bill Prendergast posted info about “False Witness” on his Daily Kos diary.

A Michele Bachmann Comic Misadventure

City Pages
May 26, 2009

Preview: PAGE 1, PAGE 2, PAGE 3, PAGE 4, PAGE 5.
Click on image at page 1 and 2 links to enlarge

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6/29/09 Update

Bachmann’s very visual universe: “False Witness” comic #1 sketches the political phenom (by Dan Feidt, Politics in Minnesota, June 29, 2009)

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq 

As of Tuesday, June 23, 2009, at least 4,316 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,368 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally. …

Latest identifications: 

• Spc. Chancellor A. Keesling, 25, Indianapolis, Ind., died June 19, 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 961st Engineer Company, Sharonville, Ohio. The circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation [suspected military suicide].
• Capt. Kafele H. Sims, 32, Los Angeles, died June 16, 2009 in Mosul, Iraq, of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 18th Engineer Brigade, Schwetzingen, Germany. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
• Sgt. Joshua W. Soto, 25, San Angelo, Texas, died June 16, 2009 in Iraq of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss Texas.

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan 

Maj. Sean Birchall, 33, born in Vanderbijl Park, South Africa, died June 19, 2009 of wounds sustained in an IED attack on his armored vehicle while on patrol in Basharan, near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, British Army. (Photo: UK Ministry of Defense)

As of Monday, June 22, 2009, at least 637 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. …

Latest identifications: 

• Sgt. Ricky D. Jones, 26, Plantersville, Ala., died June 21, 2009 in Bagram, Afghanistan, when his unit was attacked by indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Fort Polk, La.
• Spc. Rodrigo A. Munguia Rivas, 27, Germantown, Md., died June 21, 2009 in Bagram, Afghanistan, when his unit was attacked by indirect fire. He was assigned to the 710th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
• 1st Sgt. John D. Blair, 38, Calhoun, Ga., died June 20, 2009 in Mado Zayi, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle. He was an Army National Guardsman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, Lawrenceville, Ga.
• Command Master Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey J. Garber, 43, Hemingford, Neb., died of non-hostile causes June 20, 2009 aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the North Arabian Sea supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and maritime security operations in the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility. The incident is under investigation. 
• Staff Sgt. Paul G. Smith, 43, East Peoria, Il., died June 19, 2009 in Kandahar, Afghanistan of wounds sustained when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. He was an Illinois Army National Guardsman assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 106th Cavalry, Aurora, Il.
• Staff Sgt. Joshua A. Melton, 26, Carlyle, Il., died June 19, 2009 in Kandahar, Afghanistan of wounds sustained when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. He was an Illinois Army National Guardsman assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry, Marion, Il.
• Sgt. 1st Class Kevin A. Dupont, 52, Templeton, Mass., died June 17, 2009 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, of wounds suffered March 8 in Kandau, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 79th Troop Command, Rehoboth, Mass.
• Spc. Jonathan C. O’Neill, 22, Zephyrhills, Fla., died June 15 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, of wounds suffered June 2 in Paktya, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 549th Military Police Company, 385th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne) at Fort Stewart, Ga.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties 

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Sunday, June 21, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Two people were killed and 13 were wounded when a bomb went off inside a cafe in a Shi’ite district of southern Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed a civilian and wounded three other people, including a policeman, in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a policeman in eastern Mosul, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Saturday, June 20, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

KIRKUK – Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops arrested 11 people this week wanted on terrorism charges in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

KIRKUK – A suicide truck bomb killed at least 34 people and wounded about 150 others outside a mosque near Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. Dozens of homes in the area were flattened by the blast.

BASRA – Iraqi security forces backed by coalition forces killed a suspected militant in Basra, 260 miles southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman and wounded his mother when they opened fire on his car in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb targeting a police convoy wounded two civilians in northern Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

RAMADI – Two mortar rounds killed a man and wounded eight other people, including two police officers, when they landed on a house and a police station in southern Ramadi, 62 miles west of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – Attackers stabbed to death a policeman in central Kirkuk late on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces found the bodies of four men with gunshot wounds on Thursday in a house under construction in Baghdad’s eastern Sadr City district, a security source said. 

Following are security developments in Iraq on Friday, June 19, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed Izzat Abdulla, coach of Iraq’s national karate team, in east Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi army patrol, killing one solider and one bystander in east Mosul on Thursday, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a civilian in west Mosul on Thursday, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Thursday, June 18, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead a civilian in northern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A soldier accidentally killed another soldier when his rifle went off by mistake in eastern Mosul, north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb wounded two civilians on Wednesday when it targeted a police patrol in central Kirkuk, 155 miles, north of Baghdad, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Five people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad’s Karrada district, police said.

ISKANDARIYA – Gunmen killed a man in a drive-by shooting late on Tuesday in Iskandariya town, 25 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

SAMAWA – A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Samawa, 140 miles south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded a U.S. soldier on patrol in northeast Baghdad, a U.S. military statement said, adding that one U.S. Humvee vehicle was damaged in the explosion.

KIRKUK – Gunmen forced their way into a mobile phone shop and stabbed to death the owner in central Kirkuk, (155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A bomb attached to a car killed one man and wounded five other civilians in central Kirkuk on Monday, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded a judge and two of his aides on Monday when it exploded near his car in northern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested three suspects linked to al Qaeda in Baghdad on Sunday during an Iraqi-led operation, a U.S. military statement said.

BAQUBA – Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested three suspects on Sunday accused of planting roadside bombs targeting Iraqi and coalition forces in Baquba, 40 miles northeast of the capital, a U.S. military statement said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Monday, June 15, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

RAMADI – Police said they found the body of a fellow policeman who was kidnapped two days ago in northern Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

GARMA – Police said two policemen died and a third was seriously ill after poisoned food was given to them by a driver at a checkpoint in Garma, 20 miles west of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a bus killed a man and his wife and wounded one other civilian in the Shaab district, northern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb exploded inside a minibus, also in the Shaab district, wounding five civilians, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Sunday, June 14, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military patrol, wounding two civilians in southern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Police had earlier said the blast was caused by a hand grenade.

MOSUL – Gunmen threw a hand grenade at a police patrol in Mosul, wounding two policemen and one civilian, police said.

NASSIRIYA – The U.S. military said Iraqi police seized a large stockpile of heavy ordnance, explosives, weapons and small arms ammunition on Saturday from a home in Nassiriya, 185 miles southeast of the capital.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded one policeman and two civilians in Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a car belonging to a member of a government-backed militia detonated at his house in Doura district, southern Baghdad, police said. No one was hurt.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Saturday, June 13, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded two civilians in the west of Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

SAMARRA – A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Friday during combat-related operations in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said, without giving details. Police said an Iraqi officer was also killed in the incident in Samarra, 62 miles north of Baghdad.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded two policemen in central Kirkuk, 155 miles north of the capital, police said.

BAIJI – A roadside bomb killed a girl and wounded seven other civilians in Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad on Friday, police said.

TIKRIT – Police found the body of a young man shot in the head and chest in central Tikrit, 95 miles north of the capital, on Friday, police said.

Security Developments in Afghanistan

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Sunday, June 21, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

ZABUL – Eight Afghan civilians, five of them women, were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle on Saturday in southern Zabul province, Ghulam Jailani, a provincial police official, said. Thirteen other civilians were wounded in the blast, he added.

BAGRAM – Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six more were wounded on Sunday when the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, Bagram, came under fire from several mortar rounds, the U.S. military said in a statement.

KUNAR – Several civilians were killed and more than a dozen were hurt overnight during an exchange of heavy fire between NATO-led forces and Taliban in eastern Kunar province, Fazlullah Wahidi, the provincial governor, said.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Saturday, June 20, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

HELMAND – A NATO-led air strike killed around 26 Taliban insurgents who were trying to plant roadside bombs in southern Lashkar Gah district on Friday evening, Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

HELMAND – Afghan and Western forces killed eight militants during an operation in Gereshk district on Friday, regional Afghan army commander, Sher Mohammad Zazai, said.

ZABUL – Seven Taliban fighters were killed when they attacked a joint Afghan and foreign army patrol in the Arghandab district on Friday, Zazai also said.

EAST AFGHANISTAN – A U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed in an attack on a U.S. convoy in east Afghanistan, the U.S. military said in a statement, without giving details of the location of the incident.

KHOST – Afghan and U.S. forces detained four militants from the Haqqani insurgent network during a patrol in the Sabari district on Friday, U.S. forces said in a separate statement.

HELMAND – A British soldier serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday, the British Defense Ministry said.

ZABUL – A suicide bomber attacked an Afghan army convoy in the southern Shahjoy district but the soldiers did not receive any casualties or damage to their vehicles, the Defense Ministry said.

KHOST – Two Taliban fighters were killed after they tried to ambush an Afghan army unit in the eastern Ismail Khel district, the Defense Ministry said.

HERAT – Six civilians including three women were killed when a roadside bomb hit their car in western Gozara district on Friday, Mohammad Naqeeb Arween, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

URUZGAN – Afghan police killed sixteen Taliban insurgents and detained one other during an operation in the southern Khas-Uruzgan district on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said.

No report filed for Friday, June 19, 2009.

No report filed for Thursday, June 18, 2009.

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

KUNDUZ – A provincial oil official, Mohammad Najib Jamal, was gunned down by unidentified gunmen while going to work in northern Kunduz province, provincial governor Mohammad Omar said. Two other people were wounded in the attack.

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN – Three soldiers from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were killed by a roadside bomb in the south of the country, the alliance said. It did not release the nationality of the soldiers or the province in which the incident took place.

GHAZNI – Afghan and foreign troops killed three Taliban insurgents and wounded four more during an operation in Moqor district of Ghazni province, south of Kabul, a district police official said.

GHAZNI – Taliban militants killed four guards working for an Afghan road construction company in Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province on Tuesday, provincial police chief Khial Baz Sherzai said.

PAKTIKA – Afghan and foreign soldiers killed three insurgents during clashes in Ziruk district of southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said. No soldiers were wounded in the incident, it said.

WARDAK – Insurgents attacked a NATO-led base in Maidan Shahr district of Wardak province, west of Kabul on Tuesday, the alliance said. Soldiers returned fire from the base, wounding three civilians, it said.

KUNAR – NATO-led soldiers wounded one civilian when they fired a mortar round during a “training event” from a forward operating base in Pech district of eastern Kunar province on Tuesday, the alliance said.  

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

KUNDUZ – Afghan and NATO-led soldiers killed three insurgents and wounded eight more during clashes in Chahardara district of northern Kunduz province on Monday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed and one was wounded in the incident, it said.

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN – A soldier from the NATO-led force was killed during an insurgent attack on Monday in the south of the country, the alliance said. It gave no further details about the nationality of the soldier or the location of the attack.  

Following are security developments in Afghanistan on Monday, June 15, 2009 as reported by Reuters.

HELMAND – Afghan police and soldiers in a joint operation with foreign troops killed five insurgents in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said.

FARAH – Afghan troops killed three insurgents in an operation in western Farah province, the defense ministry said on Monday.

KANDAHAR – A soldier with the NATO-led force was killed in an explosion in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, the alliance said. The Afghan Interior Ministry reported that a district police chief was also killed, and a provincial official said the two deaths were the result of the same blast.

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2 GIs Die in Attack on U.S. Base in Afghanistan

June 21, 2009

KABUL – A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said.

Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare.

Two U.S. troops died and four Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

The top government official in Bagram, Kabir Ahmad, said several rockets were fired at the base early Sunday. A spokesman with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said that three rounds landed inside Bagram and one landed outside. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t the office’s top spokesman. …

In February 2007, a suicide bomb attack outside Bagram killed 23 people while then-Vice President Dick Cheney was at the base. …

The two deaths bring to at least 80 the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan this year, a record pace. Last year 151 troops died in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to the country this year to fight an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. There are now about 56,000 U.S. troops in the country, a record number.

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Truck Bomb Kills At Least 75 in Northern Iraq, 250 Wounded

A blast outside a mosque in Taza, Iraq, on Saturday, June 20, 2009 left this crater and leveled several surrounding homes. (Photo credit: Marwan Ibrahim / AFP – Getty Images)

June 20, 2009

BAGHDAD – A truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq following prayers, killing more than 75 people, police said, making it the deadliest blast this year. …

Worshippers were leaving the mosque in Taza, 10 miles south of Kirkuk, following noon prayers when the truck exploded, demolishing the mosque and several mud-brick houses across the street, according to police and witnesses. …

Three babies in one hospital bed

Ambulances rushed victims to the overwhelmed hospital in Kirkuk and some victims had to be taken to nearby cities. Three babies cried as they were placed on a single hospital bed to be treated.

Medics treat three children who were wounded by a truck bomb attack close to a Shiite mosque near Kirkuk, Iraq, on Saturday, June 20, 2009. (Photo credit: Emad Matti / AP)

Sabah Amin, a senior health official, said 75 people, including 35 children, had died and 254 others were wounded.

Witnesses said the truck was parked across the street from the mosque and they assumed the driver was praying, although Kirkuk’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir, said investigators were looking into the possibility it was a suicide bombing.

“The truck was parked near our house; therefore most of the victims were found beneath the debris of the houses, mostly women and children,” said Ehsan Mushir Shukur, whose sister was seriously wounded and taken to the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

He said his wife was also wounded while his sister’s young son and daughter were killed.

Crying for lost son

Yellman Zain-Abideen, who was wounded by shrapnel in his hand and face, cried for his missing son who had been leaving the mosque with him when the blast occurred.

He blamed local authorities for not providing sufficient security in the mainly Turkomen area, which is surrounded by Sunni villages. …

Many of the town’s residents had fled to neighboring Iran under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime but returned following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The area is a stronghold of supporters of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite Dawa party as well as the powerful Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. …

The death toll in Saturday’s explosion near Kirkuk surpassed an April 24 double female suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad that killed 71 people.

A suicide car bomber also struck an Iraqi police patrol Saturday in Karmah, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, killing the three officers, police said. …

Another bomb exploded Sunday evening in a cafe in a Shiite enclave in a mainly Sunni area of southern Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding 13, police said.

According to an Associated Press count, at least 1,678 Iraqis — civilians and security personnel — have been killed since Jan. 1. Although the figure is lower than the 4,809 who died from attacks in the first six months of last year, there have been at least 19 bombings that killed more than a dozen people so far this year.

Related reports

Kirkuk bombing foreshadows continuing Iraqi instability

Major bombings in Iraq since January 1

June 20, 2009

Deadliest bombings in Iraq since Jan. 1, when a new U.S.-Iraqi security pact took effect:

• June 20 — Truck bomb strikes Shiite mosque near northern city of Kirkuk, killing 72.
• June 10 — Car bomb explodes in market near Shiite city of Nasiriyah, killing 30.
• May 21 — Bomb in mainly Sunni area of Baghdad kills 15 people, including three Americans.
• May 20 — Parked car bomb tears through restaurants in northwest Baghdad, killing 41.
• May 6 — Parked car bomb explodes at a produce market in southern Baghdad, killing 15.
• April 29 — Twin car bombing in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City kills 51.
• April 24 — Back-to-back female suicide bombings kill 71 outside Shiite shrine in Baghdad.
• April 23 — Suicide bomber hits Iraqis collecting humanitarian aid in Baghdad, killing 31.
• April 23 — Suicide bombing in Muqdadiyah kills 53 people, including 44 Iranian pilgrims.
• April 6 — Series of bombings in Baghdad kill 37 people
• March 26 — Car bomb tears through market in Shiite area in east Baghdad, killing 20.
• March 23 — Suicide bomber strikes Kurdish funeral in Jalula, killing 27.
• March 10 — Suicide bomber targets tribal leaders at market in Abu Ghraib, killing 33.
• March 8 — Suicide bomber strikes police academy in Baghdad, killing at least 30.
• March 5 — Car bomb tears through livestock market in Hillah, killing 13.
• Feb. 13 — Female suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in Musayyib, killing 40.
• Feb. 11 — Twin car bombs explode at a bus terminal and market area in Baghdad, killing 16.
• Jan. 4 — Female suicide bomber strikes Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, killing 38.
• Jan. 2 — Suicide bomber hits tribal leader’s home in Youssifiyah, killing 23.

6/22/09 Update

Iraq Sees Wave of Deadly Attacks

This bus had been carrying high school students to final exams when it was blown up Monday, June 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

June 22, 2009

BAGHDAD – Bombings killed at least 21 people in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Monday, including high school students on their way to final exams, as violence intensified before a planned withdrawal next week of U.S. troops from urban areas.

The bombings, nearly all in Shiite areas of the capital, came just two days after the year’s deadliest attack — a truck bombing that killed at least 75 people in northern Iraq.

Overall violence has declined drastically over the past two years, but the recent attacks have raised concerns about the Shiite-dominated government’s ability to provide security around the country without the immediate help of the U.S. troops remaining in Iraq.

Starting June 30, most of the 133,000 American troops left here will be housed in large bases outside the capital and other cities — unable to react unless called on for help. The withdrawal is part of an agreement under which all U.S. troops are to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

The reclusive Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Shiite-led government to take whatever steps necessary to protect Iraqis from attacks. But in a statement, the anti-American cleric blamed the violence on the continued presence of U.S. troops in the country and demanded a faster withdrawal. …

School bus hits roadside bomb

In that Shiite bastion [Sadr City], a roadside bomb exploded next to a bus carrying high school students to their final exams on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding 13, including three of the students, police said. The bomb peppered the bus with shrapnel and left the floor of the vehicle littered with blood-soaked textbooks. …

At least five people also were killed and 20 were wounded by a bomb planted near a car in the Karradah district of the Iraqi capital, on the east side of the Tigris River. The bomb exploded on a road leading to a checkpoint that controls access to a bridge into the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy. …

Another roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in a commercial area of eastern Baghdad’s Ur district, killing three and wounding 25, according to police, although the U.S. military said just two were killed.

In the fourth attack, a suicide car bomber targeted the mayor’s offices in Abu Ghraib, a predominantly Sunni district west of Baghdad.

The explosion occurred when the car struck a civilian vehicle before reaching the government building, damaging a nearby U.S. vehicle that was providing security for a meeting, said Maj. David Shoupe, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad.

He said four civilians were killed and 10 people were wounded, including three U.S. soldiers, while a local police officer said seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded.

Mosul sees attacks

North of the capital, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol, killing three Iraqi soldiers near Khanaqin, near the Iranian border, according to the security headquarters in Diyala province.

Gunmen also killed at least seven people in separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, including a woman and four Iraqi security forces, according to separate police reports. …

In northern Iraq, rescue crews were searching for at least 12 people still missing in a massive explosion Saturday near the ethnically tense city of Kirkuk that flattened a Shiite mosque and dozens of mud-brick houses around it. …

Americans will remain ready to help, as they were in the aftermath of Saturday’s bombing, but many Iraqis fear their departure after two years of a steady urban presence will prove deadly.

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Supporters of Iran’s defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi set burning barricades in the streets as they protest during a demonstration on Saturday, June 20, 2009. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

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