One Captain's Blood

Captain Brian Freeman of Temecula, CA was killed on January 20, 2007 when a bunch of English-speaking, American-looking and SUV-driving Iraqi resistance attacked an US base in Iraq. Captain was not the first American to be killed in the invasion; actually more than 3000 soldiers had died in combat. However, Senator Dood was totally fired up on the captain's death.

In the middle of December, 2006, before the Christmas holiday, when Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA) waiting their plane back home in a landing are in the green zone in Karbala, Iraq, a young officer approached the two senators out of darkness. The West Point graduate told the two Senators, the situations had gone 'nuts', and it was turning from bad to worse everyday. Back home, Senator Todd mentioned the encounter with the young officer in a public appearance (Meet the Press). One day he received an EMail from troops in Iraq, which started with 'This is Captain Freeman, and I am the officer you met in the landing area in Baghdad'. The two started communicating with Emails etc.

Last week, Mr. Charlotte Freeman was out of town when she got calls from her neighbors that a military vehicle was seen at her house. She called Senator Dood's office, and Senator Todd's staff helped her found out the bad news. Senator Dodd was totally on fire on this one, on the death of such as promising young officer, whom he had had an encounter in the landing area in the green zone.

Senator Dodd pushed for the non-binding resolution to oppose President Bush's decision of a troop surge. It took the blood of a young captain that the Senator knows to stand up in the Senate in the afternoon of January 26, to speak from, his heart - "enough is enough", "......say to them and others that in this body we will stand up in the coming days and bring an end to this insanity."

How many Iraqis have died? How many are dying at the time of typing? How would that affect their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, grandparents, cousins? classmates? friends? neighbors? colleagues?

The Silence

I was listening to local news on my drive home this evening, that some energy company CEOs lied to the congress when they testified at a joint Senate Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week. At the hearing then, contrary to what we know now, they denied any involvement in the closed door energy task force, which was set up by vice president Cheney and brewed a plan friendly to the oil industry. CEOs lie, no big news.

However, what disgusted me is the fact that the Chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens refused to swear in these executives before they testified. This gave the executives a pass to lie on the Congress without fearing of later being prosecuted on lying under oath. What did the senator know that we don't?

What disgusted me more is the silence from the vice president's office between the high profile hearing last week and the revelation published by the Washington Post yesterday. We don't know what Senator Stevens knew, but we know that the vice president must know. Why the silence?

Why?