I guess nothing to unusually hypocritical going on with the Bushies in the past weeks, and I've been out of town so little time for "the bloggin".
Some random thoughts. purchased Sleater-Kinney's new CD (actually pre-ordered it and it was at my home when I returned from my trip). I've only listened through a couple of times, but I like it. It's different, more "Sonic". Almost like all those listens to Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth finally took over. There is some serious noise on this record, it's not your sister's Coldplay.
You see the S-K Interview in SPIN? Carrie B said (paraphrase) All these new bands sound like Gang of Four if Gang of Four sucked. THAT"S FUNNY.
in the same trip to Amazon.com I purchased LCD Soundsystem and let me tell you, if "Daft PUnk is playing at my house" doesn't get into your head, there is something wrong with that part of your brain that controls "that song in your head". This CD gets better with each listen and it's a recommend for every fan of funk-disco-punk-house.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Newsweek just retelling an old story...
Uh, people, I hate to tell you this, but the story about Americans abusing the Koran in order to enrage prisoners has been out there for quite some time. The first mention I found of it is March 17, 2004, when the Independent of London interviewed the first British citizen released from Guantanamo Bay. The prisoner said he had been physically beaten but did not consider that as bad as the psychological torture, which he described extensively. Jamal al-Harith, a computer programmer from Manchester, said 70 percent of the inmates had gone on a hunger strike after a guard kicked a copy of the Koran. The strike was ended by force-feeding.
-----
The reports kept coming: Dec. 30, 2004, "Released Moroccan Guantanamo Detainee Tells Islamist Paper of His Ordeal," reported the Financial Times. "They watched you each time you went to the toilet; the American soldiers used to tear up copies of Koran and throw them in the toilet. ..." said the released prisoner.
----
On Jan. 9, 2005, Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times of London, said: "We now know a great deal about what has gone on in U.S. detention facilities under the Bush administration. Several government and Red Cross reports detail the way many detainees have been treated. We know for certain that the United States has tortured five inmates to death. We know that 23 others have died in U.S. custody under suspicious circumstances. We know that torture has been practiced by almost every branch of the U.S. military in sites all over the world -- from Abu Ghraib to Tikrit, Mosul, Basra, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
"This is America? While White House lawyers were arguing about what separates torture from legitimate 'coercive interrogation techniques,' the following was taking place: Prisoners were hanged for hours or days from bars or doors in semi-crucifixions; they were repeatedly beaten unconscious, woken and then beaten again for days on end; they were sodomized; they were urinated on, kicked in the head, had their ribs broken, and were subjected to electric shocks.
"Some Muslims had pork or alcohol forced down their throats; they had tape placed over their mouths for reciting the Koran; many Muslims were forced to be naked in front of each other, members of the opposite sex and sometimes their own families. It was routine for the abuses to be photographed in order to threaten the showing of the humiliating footage to family members."
---
The New York Times reported on May 1 on the same investigation Newsweek was writing about and interviewed a released Kuwaiti, who spoke of three major hunger strikes, one of them touched off by "guards' handling copies of the Koran, which had been tossed into a pile and stomped on. A senior officer delivered an apology over the camp's loudspeaker system, pledging that such abuses would stop. Interpreters, standing outside each prison block, translated the officer's apology. A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans."
---
Here’s Olberman’s take on the issue: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/\
But, "wacked out liberal" Eric Alterman comes down hard on Newsweek for bad journalism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
Sullivan Says: Call McClellan’s bluff: http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_05_15_dish_archive.html#111637021330032892
-----
The reports kept coming: Dec. 30, 2004, "Released Moroccan Guantanamo Detainee Tells Islamist Paper of His Ordeal," reported the Financial Times. "They watched you each time you went to the toilet; the American soldiers used to tear up copies of Koran and throw them in the toilet. ..." said the released prisoner.
----
On Jan. 9, 2005, Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times of London, said: "We now know a great deal about what has gone on in U.S. detention facilities under the Bush administration. Several government and Red Cross reports detail the way many detainees have been treated. We know for certain that the United States has tortured five inmates to death. We know that 23 others have died in U.S. custody under suspicious circumstances. We know that torture has been practiced by almost every branch of the U.S. military in sites all over the world -- from Abu Ghraib to Tikrit, Mosul, Basra, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
"This is America? While White House lawyers were arguing about what separates torture from legitimate 'coercive interrogation techniques,' the following was taking place: Prisoners were hanged for hours or days from bars or doors in semi-crucifixions; they were repeatedly beaten unconscious, woken and then beaten again for days on end; they were sodomized; they were urinated on, kicked in the head, had their ribs broken, and were subjected to electric shocks.
"Some Muslims had pork or alcohol forced down their throats; they had tape placed over their mouths for reciting the Koran; many Muslims were forced to be naked in front of each other, members of the opposite sex and sometimes their own families. It was routine for the abuses to be photographed in order to threaten the showing of the humiliating footage to family members."
---
The New York Times reported on May 1 on the same investigation Newsweek was writing about and interviewed a released Kuwaiti, who spoke of three major hunger strikes, one of them touched off by "guards' handling copies of the Koran, which had been tossed into a pile and stomped on. A senior officer delivered an apology over the camp's loudspeaker system, pledging that such abuses would stop. Interpreters, standing outside each prison block, translated the officer's apology. A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans."
---
Here’s Olberman’s take on the issue: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/\
But, "wacked out liberal" Eric Alterman comes down hard on Newsweek for bad journalism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
Sullivan Says: Call McClellan’s bluff: http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_05_15_dish_archive.html#111637021330032892
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Kill em all
This defies logic: By remaining perfectly still you are being hostile. Orwell is pounding on his casket right now.
"
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/05/falluja.marine/index.html
I thought that if the enemy was wounded you were to provide medical treatment to him, not shoot him because he’s not dead yet. Can you IMAGINE THE OUTRAGE if an Iraqi did this to an American solider?
To repeat:
"
Accordingly, it was reasonable to believe that the corporal fired on the AIF
after reasonably believing that the individual was committing a hostile act" by
feigning death and subsequently moving his concealed arm.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/05/falluja.marine/index.html
I thought that if the enemy was wounded you were to provide medical treatment to him, not shoot him because he’s not dead yet. Can you IMAGINE THE OUTRAGE if an Iraqi did this to an American solider?
To repeat:
the individual was committing a hostile act" by feigning death
Monday, May 02, 2005
If this is progress...what does failure look like?
Context:
THEN, the President is asked at his press conference:
QUESTION: Mr. President, your State Department has reported that terrorist attacks around the world are at an all-time high. If we're winning the war on terrorism, as you say, how do you explain that more people are dying in terrorist attacks on your watch than ever before?
BUSH: Well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And when you engage the terrorists abroad, it causes activity and action.
And we're relentless -- we, America and our coalition partners. We understand the stakes.
BUSH: And they're very high, because there are people still out there that would like to do harm to the American people.
But our strategy is stay on the offense, is to keep the pressure on these people, is to cut off their money and to share intelligence and to find them where they hide.
And we are making good progress. The Al Qaida network that attacked the United States has been severely diminished. We are slowly but surely dismantling that organization.
In the long run, like I said earlier, the way to defeat terror, though, is to spread freedom and democracy. It's really the only way in the long term.
In the short term we'll use our troops and assets and agents to find these people and to protect American. But in the long term, we must defeat the hopelessness that allows them to recruit by spreading freedom and democracy.
But we're making progress.
So, the State Department doesn’t release the report for the first time in 19 years.The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last
year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks
that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on
terrorism due to Congress this week.
Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides who were briefed on statistics covering incidents including the bloody school seizure in Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir.
THEN, the President is asked at his press conference:
QUESTION: Mr. President, your State Department has reported that terrorist attacks around the world are at an all-time high. If we're winning the war on terrorism, as you say, how do you explain that more people are dying in terrorist attacks on your watch than ever before?
BUSH: Well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And when you engage the terrorists abroad, it causes activity and action.
And we're relentless -- we, America and our coalition partners. We understand the stakes.
BUSH: And they're very high, because there are people still out there that would like to do harm to the American people.
But our strategy is stay on the offense, is to keep the pressure on these people, is to cut off their money and to share intelligence and to find them where they hide.
And we are making good progress. The Al Qaida network that attacked the United States has been severely diminished. We are slowly but surely dismantling that organization.
In the long run, like I said earlier, the way to defeat terror, though, is to spread freedom and democracy. It's really the only way in the long term.
In the short term we'll use our troops and assets and agents to find these people and to protect American. But in the long term, we must defeat the hopelessness that allows them to recruit by spreading freedom and democracy.
But we're making progress.
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