Enemy Combatant
Monday, May 31, 2004
Oh What A Night: Osama Before Damascus
Everybody here's seen this photo before, right? It's Osama bin Laden, with 22 of his siblings, on a shopping spree in (IIRC) Oslo.
Osama's 15 years old in the picture -- so, since he's roughly my age, that would put this picture at about 1974 or 75:
Bush keeps saying Al Qaeda opposes us because "they hate freedom." Something tells me Osama understands more about "freedom" (in its genuine and ironic senses) than Bush understands about "tyranny" (in any sense).
Saturday, May 29, 2004
More Proof There Is No God: No Lightning Struck Him
I call it the responsibility era. --George W. Bush, May 26, 2004
Good. Because, come November 2nd, there's just so so much for you to be held responsible for . . .
. . . in fact, I'm thinking of building you a glass booth, Mr. Bush, for your upcoming trial in the Hague . . .
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Nation's Elected President Rips Bush A New One, Proposes We Return To Right Side Of Looking Glass Come November
Pope Condemns Torture As Affront to Humans
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II condemned torture Thursday as an intolerable affront to human dignity, lamenting that reports of abuses "constantly arrive from all continents."
The pope made no mention of any countries or specific cases in his speech to seven new ambassadors to the Holy See.
On June 4, John Paul is scheduled to meet with President Bush, whose administration is under heavy criticism for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib prison. Several Vatican cardinals have already assailed the abuse.
Now, in scrupulous fairness to Dubya, the Catholic Church has little room to criticize -- after all, Bush's chief purpose was only "inquisitorial" as well . . .
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Walt Kelly Said, "We Have Met The Enemy, . . ."
POP QUIZ: People who kidnap and hold hostage other, innocent people, in order to capture those innocent people's relatives, are:
(a) terrorists;
(b) war criminals; or
(c) American soldiers, spreading freedom and democracy in Iraq.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Heads Will Recline!
Army Suspends General In Charge of Abu Ghraib
The Army suspended Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski from her command of the 800th Military Police Brigade yesterday, more than four months after abuses of detainees were discovered at the Abu Ghraib prison under her command.
Karpinski was indefinitely relieved of her command pending the outcome of investigations into treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but Army officials said the move should not be taken as punishment.
No. 2 Army General to Move In as Top U.S. Commander in Iraq
The top American officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, will leave his command this summer, to be replaced by the Army's second-ranking general, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. The change is part of an overhaul of the American command structure in Iraq that will put a higher-ranking officer in charge.
Pentagon officials said that replacing General Sanchez with the Army vice chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., in no way reflected on General Sanchez's handling of the widening prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, outside of Baghdad, which was under his authority.
Gosh no, we don't want to suggest THAT, do we? Because, you know, this is the "responsibility" administration. Which means, we keep the "responsibility after-assessment" confined to the enlisted ranks.
I mean, why should we waste our beautiful minds on a thing like, uh, Abu -- Abu -- Camp, uh, Detention. Declention? Suspension?
Ah! Camp Redemption!
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Winning Hearts and Minds -- London Billet:
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Cha-lobbyists Were Actually Iranian Front Group
So it turns out the "house Arabs" at BushCo were actually a front group for Iranian spies, feeding disinformation out, and sucking sensitive American intelligence in.
Finally, proof positive that the corruption and incompetence of the Keystone Crips rises to the level of treason. Can we please please please impeach these fuckwits, en masse, now?
Friday, May 21, 2004
Curiouser And Curiouser
There are plenty of dubious stories being put out on the short (un?)happy life of one Nicholas ("Ice") Berg, so I thought I'd toss in my dos centavos here: First, I've chosen to call him "Ice" Berg because nine-tenths of the truth about his life (and death?) still seems to be submerged.
Did or did not Nick Berg get detained by American authorities while in Iraq? What was he doing there (and are rumors that he worked for That Other Government Agency true)? What was his relationship with Iraqis back in the States? Was his email identity stolen (or used with his permission?) by Zacarias Moussaoui? Was he, in fact, killed by beheading? Did the guy who the US government tells us did the killing, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, actually regrow an amputated leg?
Those of us disinclined to swallow what the Bush administration puts out on this subject continue to wonder. Meanwhile, the prostrate, incurious American press continues to report -- contrary to yesterday's story -- that The Color Formerly Known As Black is now White, and The Condition Formerly Known As Slavery is now Freedom. Back to you, Dave.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Always Looking Out For Number One
So now we have it, straight from his lawyer's word processor -- the most likely explanation why Bush cast aside a half-century's observance of the Geneva Convention (and why our captive soldiers are certain to be tortured or executed by enemies in the future):
He's trying to save his own ass from being prosecuted by future administrations for violating the War Crimes Act of 1996.
Anyone surprised?
Bush's "Reverse Midas Touch" Expands To The Private Sector
Remember when, not too long ago, Bush's appearance touting any particular government program was a sure-fire guarantee that he would soon be pushing to cut its funding? Seems his "Potemkin pResidency" tendencies are alive and well -- the Canton, Ohio bearing plant where he promoted his tax cuts last year is shutting down.
Friday, May 14, 2004
The Most Exclusive Job In The World
You know, we Americans like to TALK a good game about being "a Nation of immigrants," and continuously claiming that "anyone can grow up to be President," but in fact, we've never chosen a President who's not of Christian white European (i.e., Nordic-Celtic-Germanic-Anglo-Saxon) male background. Ever.
Maybe someday, you say, we'll be the first Western country to elect a leader of, say, a Jewish background? Too late; that was Britain, over a century ago: Benjamin Disraeli.
Well, you say, maybe we'll be the first to elect a President of, say, Japanese background? Again, Peru was there first, with Alberto Fujimori.
Well, what about, say, a President of Syrian ancestry? Argentina has us beat: Carlos Menem.
Surely, you say, we'll be the first in the Western Hemisphere to elect a President of African descent? Too late: Mexico's SECOND President was Vicente Guerrero.
Well, what about a WOMAN leader? There, Great Britain, Israel and India have us beat, with Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi, respectively.
And now, the final blow -- the world's biggest democracy, with no real history of significant immigration -- India -- appears on the verge of electing a woman of Italian birth to be Prime Minister: Sonia Gandhi.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
"No matter whether th'Constitution follows the flag or not, th'Soopreme Coort follows th'iliction returns."
So said Finley Peter Dunne's fictional Chicago bartender Mr. Dooley over a century ago, and it's all the more true today (or rather, with Bush v. Gore, they now decree the election returns). Let's hope -- in deciding whether Bush can declare himself Absolute Despot over the Guantanamo detainees -- they follow the news, too.
To Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist, O'Connor and Kennedy, I say: You created this Monster, Dr. Frankenstein. You rein him in.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
This Fish Rots From The Head Down
From page 24 of Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies (emphases mine). This exchange reportedly took place on the evening of September 11, 2001, just after Bush's address to the nation stating that "[w]e will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." Here, Clarke quotes Bush directly, at a meeting of his National Security staff:
"I want you all to understand that we are at war and we will stay at war until this is done. Nothing else matters. Everything is available for the pursuit of this war. Any barriers in your way, they're gone. Any money you need, you have it. This is our only agenda." The President asked me to focus on identifying what the next attack might be and preventing it.
When, later in the discussion, Secretary Rumsfeld noted that international law allowed the use of force only to prevent future attacks and not for retribution, Bush nearly bit his head off. "No," the President yelled in the narrow conference room, "I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass."
Now, read this and tell me if the "torture-'em-till-they-talk" orders didn't come directly from the Oval Office.
Outrage, Cubed
After reading his depraved rantings from the Abu Ghraib hearings yesterday, this is a letter I just submitted at Sen. Inhofe's website:
You, sir, absolutely disgust me. Your comments during the testimony of Gen. Taguba yesterday prove, without a doubt, that you are utterly unworthy of the high office you hold. What twisted perversion of America did you grow up in?
Although I am obviously not one of your constituents (thank God), I will do everything in my power to see that you never hold any public office again -- including dogcatcher, because even a dog deserves better treatment than the torture and abuse you seem to think the Iraqi captives deserve (the vast majority of whom, by the way, were rounded up by MISTAKE).
I find it hard to believe that a man who espouses the moral code of NAZI GERMANY represents the State of Oklahoma in the Senate. Have you no conscience? Have you no moral compass? Have you, sir, at long last, no sense of decency?
That felt good. Feel free to visit his website yourself, and "pile on" (no photographic pun intended).
Monday, May 10, 2004
"Huddled Masses," The Sequel
What Bush sees:
What the Arab world sees:
Maybe This Is The "Democracy" Bush Envisions For Us All?
From the Financial Times:
Coalition military intelligence officers believed 70-90 per cent of Iraqi detainees were "arrested by mistake", according to a leaked Red Cross report on prisoner abuse, further details of which were disclosed on Monday.
The confidential report, given to the US and British governments in February but covering events in March to November last year, describes a pattern of indiscriminate arrests involving destruction of property and brutal behaviour towards suspects and their families.
* * * * *
The report, published in full on Monday by the Wall Street Journal, said arrests tended to follow a pattern. "Arresting authorities entered houses usually after dark, breaking down doors, waking up residents roughly, yelling orders, forcing family members into one room under military guard while searching the rest of the house and further breaking doors, cabinets and other property.
"Sometimes they arrested all adult males present in a house, including elderly, handicapped or sick people. Treatment often included pushing people around, insulting, taking aim with rifles, punching and kicking and striking with rifles."
Not to mention that most if not all of this shouted, chaotic questioning takes place in a foreign tongue. On the basis of which, they throw you in prison indefinitely and torture you.
If this is what Bush means by "democracy," I'm signing up with the "terrorists" . . .
The Morons Who Lost the War
The Military Times, in its latest editorial, hints that it's time for Rummy (and by implication, Bush) to go:
A failure of leadership at the highest levels
Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.
* * * * * *
But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.
* * * * * *
This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.
Question you should use to pester your wingnut friends and acquaintances: "Why does the US military hate America?"
Friday, May 07, 2004
Spare Us The Feigned Outrage, Please
Rumsfeld, Myers, Karpinski, et al., are all trying to spin this story as the isolated, unauthorized acts of a few sick individuals. However, it's pretty clear that, as one early example, the FBI and (other) Justice officials were just itching to use torture on captives since shortly after 9-11 -- whether here in this country, or abroad. And their "Amen corner" of wingnut pundits were backing them up all the way.
You see, the Gitmo and Abu Ghraib Kafka Kamps were (and still are) all about "intelligence gathering" -- never mind that most civilized countries abandoned Torquemada's tactics years ago, not on "humanitarian" grounds, but for the hardheaded, unsentimental reason that torture-elicited confessions are simply unreliable. (Did he "name names" because it was true? Or because he wanted you to stop electrocuting his testicles, and this seemed to be what you wanted to hear?)
My guess is that Bush won't fire Rumsfeld because Rummy's got something on Bush -- probably incontestable proof that Bush knew of the torture early last year, or perhaps that he expressly approved it even before the invasion. But Sy Hersh says there's worse to come -- videotaped rapes of women and boys, among other, "new" atrocities.
Make no mistake -- by their tacit approval of such behavior, these sociopaths in and near the White House have put our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in FAR more danger than ANY antiwar sentiments expressed by citizens here at home. (Not that you'll get any of their more delusional supporters to admit that -- hell, they're still buying the Al-Qaeda/Saddam linkage fairytale.)
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Gitmo East
Here you go -- the Taguba report, online.
Now you know more about the prison atrocities at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, evidently, than either General Myers, or the Commandant-in-Chief.
Gee, do you think Rummy has taken a peek at the report? And this time, will he have any memory of it?
Sunday, May 02, 2004
When "Anti-terrorism" Is Easier Than Crimefighting, Everybody Becomes An Enemy Of The State
This is a trend that ought to curl your hair:
Federal agents sought 1,727 warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic eavesdropping and physical searches last year, according to a Justice Department filing with Congress. Just four applications were rejected, and two of those were later revised and approved. The number of so-called FISA warrants jumped by 500 from 2002 and has almost doubled since 2001, when 934 applications were approved.
By comparison, there were 1,442 wiretap petitions in federal and state courts for crimes like drugs and racketeering, according to a separate report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the new FISA figures show the Justice Department "is deploying its legal resources to uncover and prevent terrorist attacks on Americans.''
"To keep the United States and its people safe, it is critical that the Department of Justice use every legal means to detect, deter and disrupt foreign terrorists and their activities here in America,'' Ashcroft said.
So, what do you think here -- are there suddenly more terrorists than criminals in America? Or do you think Ashcroft's definition of "potential terrorist" -- and thus "potential target of clandestine surveillance" -- now includes virtually everyone who's ever posted to this very blog?
