I understand that his tapes may appear next week on ABC.

I give this guy credit for changing his mind, and doing it so publicly. Too bad that some of the pyscho-Saddam protectors in this country will be the first to try and discredit him.
After the war is over, we are going to have to endure American Saddam apologists discounting first hand Iraqi accounts of torture and tyranny. The revisionist spinning that I'm hearing is incredible.

hopefully abc doesn't edit it and slant it too badly ...

Interesting, very interesting. I just hope these people who want to be liberated speak up when the Coalition troops finally take Baghdad and that they are not outnumbered or shouted down or harassed by the many Iraqis who will still want the Americans to leave immediately once the war is over.

I give this guy ZERO credit. He is now out here trying to publicly play jesus to the lepers in his head. oh, i was stooopid, i was an idiot, how could i have been sooooooo stooopid. if i just tell everybody how stooopid i was maybe it will all be right. the people will forgive me, god will forgive me and i can go back to being holier than thou....

Yeah right. Did this nitwit need to go to Iraq to see the evidence. when the evidence has been part of the public record.

What about the damage fools like him marching in cities around the world have caused. Would the French and Germans and the rest of the yellow livered bunch have had done their despicable acts if idiots like him weren't cheering them on.

Yeah, he is a lesser scumbag for he came clean. But a lesser scumbag is still a scumbag. Perhaps one of the misfiring cruises will take the rest of his crowd still in Iraq out.

Hoping.

A good rally would be to roll up to an anti-war protest with a flatbed truck holding a large big screen tv showing footage of this kind of testimony, and if possible, along with other video evidence of actual atrocities,like the rape and torture videos referred to by these women (plastic shredder one would be good if anyone got it)

Don't tear him a new Asshole UncleDuke. The truth is that he's guided by a strict belief in non-violence...a belief upheld by Jesus, Ghandi, the Buddah... It's not something I wholly believe in, or most people for that matter, but it does have it's merits. What matters is how you apply it.

Take the Palestinians for instance. Imagine if tomorrow you woke up and the current regime of wackos totally gave up their policy of suicide bombings...calmly marched thousands of palestinians into the the settlements...and SAT DOWN....and DIDN'T MOVE FOR WEEKS...

It would be a hell of a lot more effective than what they do now.

Again, non-violence is not the answer in all cases. It's not the answer in Iraq. But you seem like your freaking out over this guys for no reason.

UncleDuke is right to a point, guys like this, no matter how "moral" their motivations have undermined the very effort that would bring relief to the most oppressed people on earth. This man, and those like him, are responsible for the deaths of many, many innocent people.

Yet, he has had his ephiphany. The tapes he has will be shown on national television and perhaps worldwide. If they are what he says they are, their impact could be enormous...especially in the U.S. and the U.K. The only way we can "lose" the war in Iraq is if our leadership and our people lose the will the fight it.

We must always remember "Why We Fight." To me, bringing freedom to this incredibly oppressed people is, and always has been, the very best reason to do it.

I eagerly await the chance to see these tapes.

Yes, it's possible to get all manner of Iraqis to say all kinds of things. For every 'reformed peace activist' who brings back tapes of ordinary Iraqis who wish for war to end the brutal tyranny of the Baathist regime, we are sure to hear from other Iraqis who do not and will not accept an American presence in Iraq.

thethethe

I have seen many more accounts of Iraqis wanting this war than those not wanting it. Even if there is friction between the US and the post-Saddam government, it won't be nearly as bad as it is right now, for us, and especially for the Iraqis.

The Hero of this story? The Iraqi border guard who, having caught him red-handed, let him through anyway.

There are some good people in Iraq. Let's not let them down.

Clevernamehere

Kanan Makiya (author of Republic of Fear) describes Iraq as a gigantic concentration camp.

I would guess a ratio of those wanting a war of liberation to be about 9:1, the 9 being the average Iraqi inmate, and the 1 being the average Ba'athist goon or guard.

z

I come from the land of Gandhi and Buddha and have spent enough time studying the Indian history and Buddhism thought to know that what neither Gandhi or Buddha teachings espouse what these pinheads do.

These pinheads are for passivity. For them non-violence is an end in itself. . If men get shredded, women get raped, cities get gassed and buildings get bombed thats all good and fine. Oh but we have to be non-violent. As Gandhi would say (or not) thats a load of hog-shit.

Gandhi espoused using non-violence as a means. If that meant marching up to a police officer and getting pummeled in the head with a baton without raising an arm in defence then so be it.

Gandhi was largely successful in evicting the British from India using his methods. But don't you think that Gandhi's (and Martin Luther's) success testified to the inherent civility and decency of their opponents.

What if the Chinese or Filipinos tried non-violence against the Japanese? The Jews against the Germans as Gandhi so infamously counselled them to?

As to the teachings of the Buddha, he never espoused passivity in the face of injustice or oppression. Defence of the weak is a basic principle of compassion that Buddhism preaches.

I could go on and on, but these pinheads are oblivious to the oppression and suffering of the Iraqis.

So what you say? People the world are opressed. Kim Jong starves the Koreans while Jintao had monks and nuns shot in Lhasa.

But what gets my goat, is that these pin-heads mock the blood and treasure expended by the coalition in Iraq to free the Iraq people. That really gets me. Thats why they are scum, all of them.

Go Stars and Stripes!

Don: I agree that non-violence would work on the Israelis. They are at heart an fundamentally decent people. Witness the pangs in the (former) peace movement on the Israeli left for the Palestinians.

However I think the Palestinians are fundamentally incapable of such an movement. Non-violence requires a moral fortitude to carry out and an exacting certitude in ones mission. Hard to have either when you are trying to wipe out an ancient civilization by pushing them into the sea.

You're 100% right Duke. Though realistically, the Palestinians shouldn't have to lie down and passively accept what is occuring to them. What's necessary is for them to realise how much Yasser Arafat, although not nearly as treacherous as Saddam, strips the Palestinians of their dignity by denying them the aid they are offered and denying them the possibility of a peaceful existence.

I'm with ya uncle. Wouldn't change a thing you said except maybe add if you don't mind. I'm pretty sure that Jesus would not sit idly by and not confront evil.

I was unaware that the Palestinians were morally uncapable.

You're probably also unaware that the correct term is incapable then.....easy oversight :)

Before Ken Joseph went to Iraq he was wrong about 100 issues. Now, he's only wrong about 99 issues - and basking in the glow of his 15 minutes.

Alan Brain, you're right about that border guard - now there's a guy who took a personal risk beyond our common understanding, and has the courage of his convictions.

UncleDuke is not completely right. What we expect from people is not to always be right, but to be willing to change their mind when the facts are obvious. This guy had a lot invested in his anti-war ideology, and he overcame that. If he had come back to the Western world after seeing what he saw and began giving speeches to activist groups about how evil the US was, THEN he would be a scumbag.

I'm pretty sure that Jesus would not sit idly by and not confront evil.

That's a tricky one... Without getting all religous on this one... Jesus never preached the over throw of Rome, and for the first 300 years of Christianity, many were kiled for not fighting in the army, and many chose not to fight back.

Jesus confronted evil differently, dealing with the individual, rather then the mass. Afterall he was led like a lamb to the slaughter... Not a bull, bucking and kicking.

Point being, I don't believe in passivism, I believe in active peace-making, the human shields to a point are correct, they just are stupid in how they say it, believing the Americans WILL TARGET where they are.

Would this guy be putting the people on the tape at severe risk?

And perhaps you underestimate the left to cover their eyes to the truth just as they assume that we on the right cover our eyes to their notion of truth.

It will be shown, discussed and forgotten, just like the footage about the Contras.

You can't make something like this up.

I never forgot that there were crimes committed by some of the Contras. Or the innocence of the majority of Contras, who were true freedom fighters.

But it was interesting to watch most of the Left pretend that the Sandinista crimes were not more widespread and more profound, much of the time. When the Nicaraguan people threw the repressive thug Ortega out on his ear, most just slunk away. When they free presses started rolling again due to the Contras, and when the new elections due to the Contras' actions resulted in Sandinista losses, most in the Left pretended it never happened.

Funny, huh? I was a leftist, once, but this is one of a dozen reasons I walked away--and never regretted it.

Michael:

The crimes of Saddam and the Baath party have been part of the public record for a long time. See the article by Ann Clwyd, the Labor British MP. She has visited Kurdistan and Northern Iraq and wrote some moving articles on conditions there.

Similar documentation by Amnesty, Human Rights and others. Ken Joseph did not do his homework or chose to dismiss it before he left.

Why.

Simple. He is motivated by anti-American sentiments. I live in NYC, I have talked with a lot of anit-war people both here and all over the world. Their facts are non-existent and their logic appalling. Why do they protest the war so?

Like the professor at Columbia who said let a thousand mogadishus bloom they are solely motivated by anti-americanism. We went to Somalia to help those people and these anti-war fools celebrate the deaths of 18 soldiers who went there to feed them?

Facts or logic don't matter to the anti-war movement. Their sole motivating factor is irrational hatred of every American ideal and action.

What makes you think the rest of the left will listen when Ken Joseph talks?

If Ken Joseph stayed in Iraq and started an uprising or came back and joined the Marines, he would be exonerated in my eyes.

Till then he is SCUM.

Where does an Assyrian come from?

Northern Iraq and points north and west.

map

@ Dean Esmay

How can he join the Marines if he is NOT an American? And how can he start an uprising in the most concetrated city of secret services? If Iraqis can't do it, as Japanese Assyrian?