Fallujah is a community that many Americans will recognize, because US military forces fought so long and hard to gain control of the city during the Iraq War.
Hugh Naylor"s latest dispatch from Iraq
Iraqi civilians are being targeted by both ISIS and Shia militias. Read the full story.
Thats one reason it came as such a shock in early 2014 when ISIS militants seized Fallujah, only about 40 miles from Baghdad in Iraq"s Sunni heartland. Since then, residents have endured "two-and-a-half years of living h**l," saidPrince Zeid bin Ra"ad,United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Iraqi militarys offensive to drive ISIS out of Fallujah has been under way for two weeks now. The soldiers are getting help from Shiite militiamen on the ground a fact that puts many Iraqis on edge, says Hugh Naylor of the Washington Post, who traveled with the Iraqi military to the outskirts of Fallujah early this week. It could create ... a pretty combustible situation given Iraqs sectarian politics."
Indeed, thousands of Iraqis in Fallujah are in danger. ISIS is using civilians as human shields, while Shiite militiamen have been accused of torture and abuse.
Husseinsaid in a press release that "there are extremely distressing, credible reports that some people who survive the terrifying experience of escaping from ISIL, then face severe physical abuse once they reach the other side.
He continued: "Eyewitnesses have described how armed groups operating in support of the Iraqi security forces are intercepting people fleeing the conflict, separating the men and teenage boys from the women and children, and detaining the males for security screening. ... There are even allegations that some individuals have been summarily executed by these armed groups."
Courage: High in the mountains of Kandahars Minashan district in Afghanistan, soldiers brave 100-m.p.h. wind from a CH47 Chinook helicopter. Their mission was to help provide stability for a 2004 presidential vote.(Photo: David P. Gilkey/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
During his time at the Detroit Free Press, photographer and videographer David P. Gilkey made numerous trips into troubled countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia. Through his lens, Free Press readers saw the horror of war and its toll on the citizens and soldiers embroiled in those conflicts.
Gilkey was killed on Sunday, June 5, 2016, when an armored vehicle he was traveling in while on assignment in Afghanistan for NPR came under attack.
Between 2003 and 2006, Gilkey made several trips to Iraq for the Free Press. He was embedded with the first wave of ground troops that invaded the country on March 20, 2003. His eeriegreen photos of soldiers shot with night vision optics were the first images out of Iraq. He would return to the country seven times over the course of three years to cover that conflict.
In 2006, Gilkey and reporter Joe Swickard traveled to Iraq with a 900-member Marine Reserve Unit from Michigan to tell in words, photos and videos the stories of life on the front lines. The resulting video series won the Free Press its first National Emmy in 2007 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
This series of videos highlights a selection of that video work from 2006 as well as from a trip Gilkey made to the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq, for USA Today. In addition, hear Gilkey talk about his time covering Iraq from the first days of the war in 2006 through his trip to Balad.
Band of Brothers: Twentynine Palms Training
This video launched the series and documented intense training in the California desert at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. David P. Gilkey, DFP
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigans 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as theirfamilies lives back home. This video launched the series and documented intense training in the California desert at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Band of Brothers Fallujah Patrol
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigan"s 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as their families" lives back home. Here, soldiers patrol Fallujah, a hotbed of insurgency within a community of civilians. David P. Gilkey, DFP
Here, soldiers patrol Fallujah, a hotbed of insurgency within a community of civilians. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Band of Brothers Home away from Home
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigans 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as their families lives back home. Here, soldiers live day to day in a train station on the outskirts of Fallujah.
Here, soldiers live day to day in a train station on the outskirts of Fallujah. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Band of Brothers Sgt. Bryan Burgess
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigans 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as their families lives back home. Here, friends and family of Sgt. Bryan Burgess mourn his passing thousands of miles apart. David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee, DFP
Here, friends and family of Sgt. Bryan Burgess mourn his passing thousands of miles apart. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Band of Brothers Christmas
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigans 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as their families lives back home. Here, soldiers patrol Fallujah on Christmas night while also celebrating.
Here, soldiers patrol Fallujah on Christmas night while trying to retain some semblance of the season. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Band of Brothers End of a Tour
In 2006, the Detroit Free Press told the story of Michigans 1/24 Marines, documenting their tour of duty in Iraq as well as their families lives back home. Here, soldiers deal with what theyve seen and look homeward. David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee, DFP
Here, soldiers deal with what theyve been through and look homeward for a return to normalcy. The video series, filmed and edited by David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee among others, went on to win a national Emmy Award.
Dust Off Medical Evacuation in Iraq
In 2006, Detroit Free Press photographer David P. Gilkey teamed up with USA Today reporter Gregg Zoroya to tell the story of medical evacuations of Marines in Iraq. Video produced by Stephen McGee. David P. Gilkey, DFP
In 2006, Detroit Free Press photographer David P. Gilkey teamed up with USA Today reporter Gregg Zoroya to tell the story of medical evacuations of Marines in Iraq. Video produced by Stephen McGee.
David Gilkey recounts Iraq coverage
Photojournalist David P. Gilkey recounts his coverage of the Iraq war while working for the Detroit Free Press. Gilkey was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday, June 2, 2016, while on assignment for National Public Radio.
Photojournalist David P. Gilkey recounts his coverage of the Iraq war while working for the Detroit Free Press. Gilkey was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday, June 2, 2016, while on assignment for National Public Radio.
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To military historians, millions of Americans, Europeans and especially the survivors and families of those who fought in World War II, June 6, 1944, is known solely as D-Day a day widely recognized as a turning point in World War II.
On the morning of the historic day, a coordinated assault was launched involving more than 160,000 Allied fighters storming the beaches of Normandy, France.
Success on D-Day was critical to an Allied win over n**i Germany. But, what does it mean? What does the D in D-Day stand for?
Could the D stand for decision, doomsday or even death?
While there is not complete agreement on the answer to the question, a couple of generally accepted explanations lead all possible answers.
The World War II Museum in New Orleans offers clarity on the topic citing author Stephen Ambroses D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II:
Time magazine reported on June 12 [1944] that as far as the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in Field Order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 20, 1918, which read, The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient.
According to Time, the D in D-Day merely means day.
Could it be that simple? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Another book, War Slang from Paul Dickson, offers the following accounts for consideration:
Many explanations have been given for the meaning of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the day the Allies invaded Normandy from England during World War II. The Army has said that it is simply an alliteration, as in H-Hour. Others say the first D in the word also stands for day, the term a code designation. The French maintain the D means disembarkation, still others say debarkation, and the more poetic insist D-Day is short for day of decision. When someone wrote to General Eisenhower in 1964 asking for an explanation, his executive assistant Brigadier General Robert Schultz answered: General Eisenhower asked me to respond to your letter. Be advised that any amphibious operation has a departed date; therefore the shortened term D-Day is used.
The short answer here, the D in D-Day could mean day, departure, disembarkation, debarkation or day of decision.
The only real agreement on D-Day is the fact the invasion forever changed the course of WWII.
Need to more about the events of D-Day? You can follow a timeline of the invasion on Twitter.
Follow the author of this story on Twitter and Facebook:
In my travels and conversations this year, Ive been encouraged to meet grassroots people of all progressive stripes: populist, unionist, liberal, environmentalist, feminist, civil libertarians, civil rights activists, and others. Over and over, the question I encounter is some variation of What should we do? How do we make Washington govern for all the people?
Thanks for asking. The number-one thing you can do to bring about change is to show up. Think of showing up as a sort of civic action, where you get to choose something that fits your temperament, personal level of activism, and your available time and energy. The point here is that every one of us can do somethingand every bit helps.
Simply being there matters. While progressives have shown up for elections in winning numbers, our movement tends to fade politely into the shadows after the polls close, leaving public officials (even those we put in office) free to ignore us and capitulate to ever-present, ever-insistent corporate interests. No more. Grassroots progressivesas individuals and through our groupsmust get in the face of power and stay there.
This doesnt require a trip to Washington, though it can. It can be done right where you livein personal meetings, on the phone, via email and letters, through social media (tweet at the twits!), on petitions, and any additional ways of communication that you and other creative people can invent.
Hey, were citizens, voters, constituents. We should not hesitate to request in-person appointments with officials back home (these need not be confrontational). We should attend forums where theyll be: local hearings, town hall sessions, speeches, meet-and-greets, parades, ribbon-cuttings, receptions. They generally post their public schedules on their websites. Go to their meetings, ask questions, or at least say hello, introduce yourself. Make them learn your name.
Okay, youre too busy to show up at all this stuff, but think about going to one every month or so. And you dont have to go alone. Get a family member, a couple of friends, a few members of the groups youre in to join you. Make it an excursion, rewarding yourselves with a nice glass of wine or a beer and some laughs afterward.
Then there are times (in the course of human events, as Jefferson put it) when citizens must come together in big numbers to protest, to insist on being heard. And when were shut out, a higher form of patriotism demands that ordinary folks surround a public officials district office or a high-dollar fundraising event to deliver a noisy message about the peoples needs.
This is especially necessary for officials who get a substantial, or even majority, vote from progressive constituencies but still stiff us on such major needs as increasing the minimum wage, overturning Citizens United, endorsing a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street speculators, and prohibiting voter suppression. We have a right to expect them to respect our vote, and stand with us on the big issues. Weve been too quiet, too indulgent with such office holders, and they wont change until we start confronting them publicly.
Both in terms of having your own say and in demonstrating the strength of the grassroots numbers behind the policy changes we want, you and I are going to have to get noisier, more demonstrative, more out-front in demanding that elected officials really pay heed to those who elected them. Lets make 2016 the year of reintroducing ourselves and our expectations to policymakers. At their every turn, we should be there, becoming a personal human presence (even an irritant) that they cannot ignore.
Jim Hightower produces The Hightower Lowdown newsletter and is the author, with Susan DeMarco, of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow.
David Gilkey - Photographing Haiti WASHINGTON: Award-winning American journalist David Gilkey and his translator were killed while traveling with an Afghan army unit that came under fire in southern Helmand province, in a sign of just how dangerous the conflict remains for the media trying to cover it.
The translator was identified as Zabihullah Tamanna, 38. Two other National Public Radio journalists traveling with Gilkey in a separate vehicle, reporter Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva, were unharmed.
NPR said the vehicle in which Gilkey, 50, and his translator were traveling was struck by shellfire near the town of Marjah yesterday.
A Taliban hotbed, the opium-rich province of Helmand is almost entirely under the control of insurgents.
"David has been covering war and conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. He was devoted to helping the public see these wars and the people caught up in them. He died pursuing that commitment," said Michael Oreskes, NPR"s senior vice president of news and editorial director.
"As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him. He let us see the world and each other through his eyes."
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom group, said that prior to the deaths of Gilkey and Tamanna, 24 journalists and one media worker have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001 US-led invasion.
Reports said Gilkey was the first non-military American journalist killed since the start of the conflict.
"Even though much of the world"s attention has shifted away, let no one doubt that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place for journalists - local and foreign - working to cover that protracted conflict," said Bob Dietz, CPJ"s Asia program coordinator.
"We are deeply saddened by the deaths of Zabihullah Tamanna and David Gilkey. There are too many journalists who have given their lives to tell the Afghan story."
Gilkey"s colleagues responded with shock at the news of his sudden death, the first time in NPR"s 46-year history that it has lost a journalist on a reporting assignment.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR"s South America correspondent who previously served as Iraq and Middle East bureau chief, said on Twitter: "We honor our dead. We remember them. We know that their work lives on. It"s not enough though. We mourn. #davidgilkey#ZabihullahZamanna."
"Where to begin. This is an unimaginable loss. David Gilkey was one of our greatest journalists," tweeted "All Things Considered" co-host Audie Cornish.
Four acclaimed music documentaries will get big screen revivals thanks to the Music in Motion Film Series starting this Wednesday night, with subsequent screenings in July, September and November. Two of these films (Stop Making Sense and The Last Waltz) are widely considered among the best concert films ever made. All showings will be at the Music Box Theatre and the series is co-sponsored by WXRT, with one of their DJs introducing each film.
Stop Making Sense, June 8Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild) assembled footage from three Talking Heads" concerts for this 1984 film, which is still the standard for capturing a live act at their very best. The movie is especially valuable as a document of the band in action, as it appears lead singer and chief songwriter David Byrne is dead set against any Talking Heads reunion.
Shut Up and Play the Hits, July 6Unlike the Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem has already reunited and is back on the road, so this 2012 film"s taglineabout it capturing "the very loud ending" of James Murphy"s rock/dance music ensembleis prematurely dated. Still, this mix of concert footage and a behind-the-scenes profile of Murphy was very well received by critics and fans.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, September 29Breaking from the concert focus of the other three films in the series, this 2002 film about Chicago"s own Wilco puts the emphasis on the creative and commercial struggles of the recording process. The making of the album Yankee Foxtrot Hotel marked a hard-fought independence for the band, as well as the breaking point between leader Jeff Tweedy and multi-instrumentalist and key collaborator Jay Bennett (who died in 2009). The conflict between Tweedy and Bennett is captured with brutal honesty in this compelling film.
The Last Waltz, November 16Martin Scorsese"s film about The Band"s 1976 farewell concert will play just over a week before the 40th anniversary of that landmark performance. Though the group would later reunite without leader Robbie Robertson, there is a true sense of finality as members discuss finishing before the road finished them. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton are just some of the music legends who made guest appearances at the show, while Scorsese also filmed some performances after the concert on a soundstage, including the rousing collaboration with The Staple Singers seen above.
Stop Making Sense plays Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. with veteran XRT personality Terri Hemmert introducing the film. Show times and D.J. hosts for future shows will be announced later, with details available here.
Despite all its faults, the Post Office would incure considerable risk if it replaced the Horizon computer system that thousands of subpostmasters use to run their businesses, according to the chairman of the Post Office.
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According to an article in the latest edition of Sub Postmaster, the official journal of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, when addressing concerns over the system voiced by subpostmasters and calls for a replacement system, Post Office chairman Tim Parker said Horizon is not a bad system and replacing it would bring considerable risks.
According to the journal, he said: Ive been involved in some major IT transformation projects, and the amount of c**k-ups, delays and problems we came across dont bear thinking about.
I think that, for all its faults, Horizon is not a bad system at all and wed incur considerable risks if we looked to replace it.
The Horizon computer system is at the centre of a long dispute between the Post Office and subposmasters.
In 2009, Computer Weekly revealed the stories of subpostmasters who had received heavy fines and even jail terms for alleged false accounting, which they blamed on the Horizon accounting system. The Post Office denies these claims.
Thousands of Post Offices use the IT system, developed by ICL/Fujitsu Services, for their accounts.
Group action
There is currently a group action against the Post Office where subpostmasters supported by The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JSFA) seek justice and compensation for what they claim are wrongful prosecutions and fines.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission is also reviewing prosecutions for account shortfalls, which subpostmasters blamed on Horizon.
In response to previous Computer Weekly articles, the Post Office said: It remains the case that more than three years of investigations have not identified any transaction caused by a technical fault in Horizon, which resulted in a postmaster wrongly being held responsible for a loss.
As recently as May 2016, the Post Office apologised to subpostmasters when branches all over the UK were unable to operate for an hour and a half on 9 May 2016. This was the result of a problem with the Horizon computer system. Problems such as this can cause account shortfalls, according to campaigners.
For example, in November 2015, the Communication Workers Union subpostmasters branch CWU said in a case documented by investigators that a core branch transferred cash to an outreach branch and Horizon reduced the accounts of the core by the amount transferred.
The outreach branch transferred in the amount sent and Horizon accepted the correct amount. However, Horizon did this four times, causing a loss of three times the actual amount sent. The discrepancy was for money that did not exist.
In relation to this, Post Office IT supportsent an email to a member of the postmasters branch of the CWU revealing the flaw. The email said Post Office IT supportplanned to fix the glitch with a code change.
Reports into Horizon dispute
The Horizon dispute has moved beyond the computer system itself and is more about how The Post Office dealt with the claims of subpostmasters that the losses they incurred were down to the system rather than misaccounting or theft.
An independent report into the Horizon system and individual subpostmaster cases by forensic investigation company Second Sight, which was commissioned by the Post Office and published in April 2015, said the Post Office was too quick to go to court in some cases of subpostmaster account shortfalls.
As a result of our investigations, we have established that Post Offices investigators have, in many cases, failed to identify the underlying root cause of shortfalls prior to the initiation of civil recovery action or criminal proceedings, said Second Sight.
But in its own 83-page report, the Post Office said the Second Sight findings were wrong.
Alan Bates, who set up the Justice for subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) pressure group, said: This case is about the failure of the Post Office to identify the problems with the system and the fact that they held subpostmasters responsible for shortfalls.
He also claimed the Post Office has failed to invest in the system to make life easier for subpostmasters.
