Shining A Light on the Cockroaches--Eli on Posado Carriles

Tweet "No, in my opinion, the only explanation for this sudden shift is that they realized that some Americans, even if only a few, were watching what they were doing and were screaming bloody hell about it, and that even they couldn't pull off such an outrageous act as releasing the most notorious terrorist in the Western Hemisphere. Do you really think that if no one were objecting, that they would have hesitated for a second to release him (not to mention even arresting him in the first place)? I don't. But when we (those who were paying attention and screaming) entered the kitchen and turned the light on the situation, the cockroaches had to scurry for safety, no longer free to carry on what they would have gladly continued to do if left in the dark."

Congress votes 100-0 to fund war

Tweet Oct 4, 2006 11:37 PM

"Federal budgets are among the most political of documents. The recent passage by the U.S. Senate of a record U.S. military budget of $447 billion, including a $70 billion "bridge" fund for the next six months of bloody occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a profound political statement about the underlying politics of both parties of big business in the U.S.

"The vote was 100 to 0.

"This is not just about the politics of the Republicans and the Democrats. The Senate is a millionaires’ club. Its members are well connected to the corporate and financial establishment. As such it is as good a representation of ruling-class political sentiment in this country as you can get—particularly when there is complete unanimity.

"The message of the vote is that, no matter how dissatisfied they are with President George W. Bush, no matter how much their politicians and their press accuse Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of arrogance and tactical incompetence, no matter how they criticize the lies the Bush administration used to go to war in Iraq, their bottom line is to continue the funding—not only of this war but of future wars.

Found on Uruknet.info

Republic of Waterboarding--Sen. James Aborezk

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"First, people who are experts in interrogation of the enemy pretty much agree that torture doesn’t work. Those being tortured will say anything they think their interrogators want to hear, just so the torture will stop. Secondly, the information, even if true, which is rare, in virtually every case is outdated by the time the torture is finished. Certainly no enemy would continue with plans known to someone who was captured.

"But even more importantly, as former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell said, we lose our moral high ground if we torture prisoners. To me, that is a hundred times more powerful a statement than Bush's repetitious rantings that “we are protecting Americans.” That phrase, of course, is born of polling that says Americans want to be protected, and delivered by the likes of Karl Rove, who, if nothing else, knows how to demagogue.

"But the hottest place in political hell should be reserved for members of Congress, including the weak-kneed Democrats, who essentially went along with Mr. Bush’s “compromise.”

"It did not seem to bother senators and representatives that the writ of habeas corpus is being suspended for enemy combatants. There is now no way to learn whether or not the prisoner is indeed an enemy, or just someone who was gathered up in a sweep of foreigners in Afghanistan, because, without habeas corpus, their detention cannot be tested in a court.

"Senate Democrats, who in recent years have dug in to filibuster at the slightest provocation, this time merely stood up to record their opposition, knowing full well they would lose a straight up or down vote on the Bush compromise. But instead of really trying to stop the legislation, those who opposed it were content to make a speech and vote against it so they could later brag about their principled stand.

*****

About the Author: James Abourezk served as the a congressman and senator from South Dakota from 1973-1979. His memoir, Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate, was published in 1989. Abourezk founded the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, and he is a signer of the Call from World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime , which today is holding protests in over 150 cities.

From Tom Paine, found on Cursor.org (I believe).

Woodward’s 60 Minutes Bloodbath--Mike Whitney

Tweet "Woodward’s appearance on 60 Minutes was the moral equivalent of a Mafia Hit-man performing the one task for which he is singularly well-suited; snuffing out a rival with a quick jab to the rib-cage.

"Et tu, Bobby?

"Woodward is on a mission to dethrone the Bushies and send them packing. The solidarity among American powerbrokers has dissolved into a bitter dispute over incompetence. Disenchanted elites want a place at the policy-table again and Woodward is leading the charge. His appearance is just the first of many salvos which will be aimed in the direction of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"Woodward was the perfect choice to perform the execution; calculating and cold-blooded. His work in the Watergate investigation still endears him to liberals while right-wingers admire him as the editor of the nations’ premier war-mongering rag. He has the credibility to wreak havoc on the administration while escaping the inevitable “Swift boating” that a less prominent journalist would have to endure.

"If Bush gets his come-uppence, then that’s great, but let’s not forget that the Washington Post has supported the war from the get-go. Woodward and his ilk (Tom Friedman and William Crystal) do not object to the war, just the CONDUCT of the war. If the “right” people die, then “no problem”, the American overlords can get on with the critical task of extracting valuable resources without interruption.

"This is the real “State of Denial”; the belief that it’s okay to slaughter people and destroy their civilization to enhance the wealth and power of a handful of western elites. It’s a crime for which Woodward is just as guilty as Bush.

Buggergate--Mike Whitney on the Foley Scandal

Tweet "The Foley scandal is a charade which leads nowhere. Everyone knows that Washington is little better than a Vegas "knocking shop" where wealthy patrons plop down their money and get whatever they want. It’s a wonder that we have to go through the whole drill over and over again like reruns of Survivor.

"Is there someone in America who didn’t already know that the party of sanctimony and self-righteousness is really a cover for horny hypocrites who are on the take?

"Or that the only thing the Democrats are good for is "feigning indignation" when the Republican crimes bubble to the surface?

"Or that the forth estate has no role in "informing the public" but is simply a sounding board for corporate-sponsored propaganda or a red herring for cheesy sex scandals and macabre murder investigations?

"There’s nothing to learn here for anyone who has already been paying attention. Foley is just a branch on the mighty oak of corruption. Congress is like a cracked sewer-pipe from which the fetid effluent of our political life continues to surge.

"We ought to buy every congressman a bus ticket back home and then board up the place for good.

Are You An Unlawful Combatant?

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"One suspects, however, that this administration will not be so easily deterred. To begin with, they won't have to deal with a judge or bad publicity, because the "trial" will be conducted by a military tribunal, operating in secret. Secondly, the defendants will stand trial without benefit of constitutional protections normally afforded to all American citizens. I say "normally" because I am still living in the world before the passage of our modern-day Alien and Sedition Act, at least mentally. But it's a new world, now.

"The exact contours of this strange new world are vague, but they are fast coming into painfully clear focus. As the president equates criticism of the Iraq war with "enemy propaganda," and the neocon media blares away at the theme of "dissent = treason" – or, as Glenn Reynolds puts it, "they're not antiwar, they're on the other side" – it isn't hard to imagine that we have a few sedition trials in our future.

"My expectations are dire, although this could simply be my own subjective impression, a mood that will pass. I can't help feeling, however, a sense of gathering dread, attached not just to the Military Commissions Act but arising out of the political atmosphere surrounding its passage. I never could understand – in the sense of share – the fear of authority that emanates from my Arab friend every time he sees someone in uniform. Now, however, I am beginning to feel it myself – as we all will.

Link to whole article by Justin Raimondo on Antiwar.com: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9779

President Now has Legal Authority Even Courts Can't Challenge

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"The president walked away with a lot more than most people thought," Ackerman said. He said the bill "further entrenches presidential power" and allows the administration to declare even a U.S. citizen an unlawful combatant subject to indefinite detention. "And it's not only about these prisoners," Ackerman said. "If Congress can strip courts of jurisdiction over cases because it fears their outcome, judicial independence is threatened."

Even if the Supreme Court decides it has the power to hear challenges to the new law, the Bush administration has gained a crucial advantage. In adding a congressional imprimatur to a comprehensive set of procedures and tactics, lawmakers explicitly endorsed measures of the sort that in some other eras had been achieved by executive fiat. Earlier Supreme Court decisions have suggested that the president and Congress acting together in the national security arena can be an all but unstoppable force.

The debate over the limits of torture and the rules for military commissions dominated discussion of the bill until this week. Only in the last few days has broad attention turned to its redefinition of "unlawful enemy combatant" and its ban on habeas corpus petitions that suspects have traditionally used to challenge their incarceration.

From antiwar.com

U.S. Now A Banana Republic Without the Warm Weather

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"University of Texas constitutional law professor Sanford V. Levinson described the bill in an Internet posting as the mark of a "banana republic." Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh said that "the image of Congress rushing to strip jurisdiction from the courts in response to a politically created emergency is really quite shocking, and it's not clear that most of the members understand what they've done."

"In contrast, Douglas W. Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, said Congress "did reasonably well in terms of fashioning a fair" set of procedures. But Kmiec and many others say they cannot predict how the Supreme Court will respond to the provision barring habeas corpus rights, which he said will leave "a large body of detainees with no conceivable basis to challenge their detentions."

From Angry Arab Newservice

Senate Hopefuls Treat Iraq War as Background Noise

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"Neither Cantwell nor her Republican challenger, Mike McGavick, spend much time talking about Iraq and there's little daylight between their positions. Both are blanketing the airwaves with numerous campaign pitches, none about the war.

"It's just not that hot a topic," marvels Democratic strategist Terry Thompson, who said that's also true at the U.S. House and legislative district level. "The exit strategy is just so complicated."

This is outrageous considering the following, also from today's PI article--Linda J.:

"The war is unpopular in the state. A statewide poll conducted by the Republican firm Strategic Vision showed that 62 percent disapproved of the administration's handling of the war and 64 percent favored "immediate withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq within six months." The poll of 800 likely voters was taken Aug. 27, margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points. The same poll showed Cantwell leading McGavick 48 percent to 43 percent. Other polls show a wider spread in that race.

Historian Kate Brown Answers 6 Questions About the American Gulag (9/22/06)

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"1. In 2005, Amnesty International charged that the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo makes the prison “the Gulag of our times.” After public outcry and a media attack, Amnesty retracted the charge. Is the metaphor appropriate?

"Soviet arrests were designed to inspire terror. Some people were taken off the street. Others were surprised in their beds in late night roundups. In Soviet prisons, detainees were stripped, searched, and led into special rooms where they were told to face the wall and assume stress positions. Most people were rounded up with no real evidence and without prior investigation. Interrogators withheld food, water, medical assistance, communication with relatives, and sleep until detainees agreed to talk. The most resistant detainees were beaten while handcuffed or tied.

"Granted such liberty in dealing with prisoners, some Soviet officers started to enjoy themselves. They made up games, forcing prisoners to dance, smearing glue on their heads, stripping them naked, pouring frigid water over them. Sometimes guards had too much fun and a prisoner died. Then prison-appointed doctors, who often participated in the interrogations, wrote up fictive autopsy reports. Declassified FBI and U.S. Army detailing abuses detainees in U.S. detention centers uncannily echo Soviet NKVD reports. They recount late-night roundups of civilians and describe prisoners held in chambers of extreme heat or cold, chained naked to the floor without food and water for days on end, defecating on themselves, beaten (some to death), forced to dance, to lick their shoes and body parts, to crawl around, and to bark like dogs. American doctors and psychiatrists helped devise methods of inflicting pain and fear to elicit confessions, and they signed false reports when detainees died in custody.

From Harper's Magazine

Thunder on the Mountain: The Murderers of Democracy

Tweet Link to whole Chris Floyd article here: http://www.uruknet.org.uk/?s1=1&p=27044&s2=29

September 28, 2006

"Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes.
I tell you this right now, I don’t give a damn about your dreams."
-- Bob Dylan, "Thunder on the Mountain"

From the New York Times:

The Senate today rejected an amendment to a bill creating a new system for interrogating and trying terror suspects that would have guaranteed such suspects access to the courts to challenge their imprisonment. The action set the stage for final passage of the bill, which was approved on Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The bill’s ultimate passage was assured on Wednesday when Democrats agreed to forgo a filibuster in return for consideration of the amendment. (For what the bill really means, see this excellent piece from Glenn Greenwald.)

"Who are these people? Who are these useless hanks of bone and fat that call themselves Senators of the United States? Let’s call them what they really are, let’s speak the truth about what they’ve done today with their votes on the bill to enshrine Bush's gulag of torture and endless detention into American law."

Found on Uruknet.info

Iraq: ‘From bad to worse’--Michael Jansen in Jordan Times

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"Washington cannot afford to cut its deployment or pare budgets. Violence of all kinds from a variety of quarters is rising throughout Iraq. According to a recent UN survey, fatalities reached an unprecedented high of 3,590 in July. Although there was a dip to 3,009 in August, the office of the UN Assistance Mission said the daily death toll averages 100. The monthly figure for January was 710. Of the combined total of 6,599 for July and August, 5,106 were killed in the capital. But official figures are almost certainly well below the true total because many bodies are not found and many deaths are not reported.

"Deterioration in the security situation has led to greater Sunni alienation from the US and its allies. An opinion poll conducted by the US Department of Defence reveals that 75 per cent of Arab Sunnis now support the insurgency. In 2003, only 14 per cent backed violent opposition to the occupation. Two other polls show that 65-71 per cent of Iraqis want US-led foreign forces to immediately pull out of the country.

"According to a State Department report, “majorities in all regions except Kurdish areas state that the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) should withdraw immediately”, adding that “the MNF-I’s departure would make [Iraqis] feel safer and decrease violence”.

"The main reason Iraqis seek the departure of foreign forces is the US failure to establish a viable authority in the country and to stem the rising tide of insurgent, jihadist, ethnic and sectarian violence which threatens to engulf all the citizens of Iraq.

Michael Jansen--no relation--in Ali Abunimah

Of Pink Suits, Golf Balls and Civil Liberties--MUST READ FROM SAM SMITH

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"These are a few reasons why attention to civil liberties - even when most things seem to be going okay - is so important. Justice William O. Douglas once said, "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything seems seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

"This is what happened in Germany. Everyone talks about the brutal results of the Holocaust, but too few consider the many mundane acts that led to it. An exception was the reporter Milton Mayer who in his remarkable book - They Thought They Were Free - quoted a German professor on the rise of Nazism:

". . . To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted.'

". . . Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.

". . . Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."

When Hitler took power he helped establish his dictatorship by repeatedly invoking Article 48 of the Weimar Republic constitution which stated, "In case public safety is seriously threatened or disturbed, the Reich President may take the measures necessary to reestablish law and order, if necessary using armed force. In the pursuit of this aim, he may suspend the civil rights . . . partially or entirely. "

"And why was it all so peaceful and easy for Hitler? In part because the supposedly democratic Weimar Republic had already used this provision 57 times prior to Hitler's rise to power..

"For such reasons, many of the real lessons of the Holocaust are not to be found so much in its death camps as in its birth places. And this is why the changes taking place in our own country now - some eerily reminiscent of Article 48 - deserve such close attention.

Spineless Democrats Deserve to Lose

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From the blog Balkinization:

"I am puzzled by and ashamed of the Democrats' moral cowardice on this bill. The latest version of the bill blesses detainee abuse and looks the other way on forms of detainee torture; it immunizes terrible acts; it abridges the writ of habeas corpus-- in the last, most egregious draft, it strips the writ for alleged enemy combatants whether proved to be so or not, whether citizens or not, and whether found in the U.S. or overseas.

"This bill is simply outrageous. I doubt whether many Democratic Senators or staffs have read the bill or understand what is in it. Instead, they seem to be scrambling over themselves to vote for it out of a fear that the American public will think them weak and soft on terror.

"The reason why the Democrats have not been doing very well on these issues, however, is that the public does not believe that they stand for anything other than echoing what the Republicans have been doing with a bit less conviction. If the Republicans are now the Party of Torture, the Democrats are now the Party of "Torture? Yeah, I guess so." Not exactly the moral high ground from which to seek office.

"The Democrats may think that if they let this pass, they are guaranteed to pick up more seats in the House and Senate. But they will actually win less seats this way. For they will have proved to the American people that they are spineless and opportunistic-- that, when faced with a genuine choice and a genuine challenge, they can keep neither our country nor our values safe.

Judicial Complicity in US War Crimes--The Watada Case

Tweet The cost of judicial abdication in the Vietnam War years, when American judges averted their eyes from the emerging holocaust of Indochina, is incalculable. Without judicial immunity, many of the horrendous deeds of the Johnson-Nixon years might never have occurred.

There were more than 12 opportunities for American judges to confront the constitutional issues evoked by Presidential war. When Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who publicly acknowledged the illegality of U.S. invasions in Indochina, offered to hear a war-challenge appeal, his colleagues on the Court overruled him.

With judicial assurance of complete impunity, beginning on December 18, 1972, Nixon dropped forty-thousand tons of explosives -- in three thousand sorties -- on a sixty-mile-long population corridor from Hanoi to Haiphong Harbor. The New York Times called Operation Linebacker II "stone-age barbarism." The Washington Post called it "savage and senseless." Nixon's Watergate break-in was a mere peccadillo compared to the judge-sanctioned air raids in Asia.

The wanton destruction of cities and towns, the use of Agent Orange to destroy nature and crops, systematic torture and rendition, assassination programs -- the bloody tragic course of the entire war depended on the winks and nods of judges who betrayed our troops. American judges played golf at country clubs on weekends while American soldiers of conscience, who tried to uphold the Constitution, languished in prison. And throughout the decade of lawlessness, not a single civilian leader, not one commander or high-level officer was ever convicted for commission of war crimes.

Counterpunch.org

Halliburton Buys the Gov't, Lock Stock & Barrels of Oil

Tweet WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Halliburton spent $4.6 million since 2000 buying influence in Washington via campaign donations and lobbying, a HalliburtonWatch analysis reveals.

"The board of directors and their spouses personally gave $828,701 to candidates for Congress and the presidency while Halliburton's political action committees gave $1.2 million, most of it donated to Republicans and political organizations with strong Republican ties.

"The company spent an additional $2.6 million lobbying members of Congress, the White House and federal agencies.

"Conclusion: Halliburton's $4.6 million in political arm-twisting since 2000 has paid-off magnificently as the company's government contracts ballooned by over 600 percent in value by the end of 2005, mostly because of the war in Iraq.

Link to whole article: http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_23083.shtml

The Sound of Democratic Silence--The Gadfly

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So far, we have heard nothing - nothing - from Congressional Democrats about the torture deal between the White House and the McCain Patsy Crew on torture. If you want to read up on just why this "deal" is nothing more than an utter and complete cave to the White House, here are the details. While there are lots of details, the basic idea is that we will continue to use torture, and we will continue to deny anything resembling due process to those that George W. Bush has decided are terr'rists.

And where are the Democrats? Hiding. No statements, no press releases, nothing. My guess is they're desperately trying to figure out what to do. Gee, if we come out against this, people will say we're weak! How many times have we heard that before?

Sorry. Can't remember which blog I found this blog on. :0

Todd Chretian--How Lesser Evilism Harms the Antiwar Movement

Tweet "The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the leadership of the United for Peace and Justice antiwar coalition represent these ideas.

"One of the PDA's main activities this fall is Camp Democracy, a two-week-long event in Washington, D.C., which was billed as a protest of the war featuring prominent liberal Democrats. Yet while PDA politicians such as Reps. Lynne Woolsey, Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee can sound very antiwar sometimes, when push came to shove, all either voted for or abstained on the House resolution cheering on Israel's assault on Lebanon.

"Moreover, they agree with the more conservative Democrats that one of the big problems with the war in Iraq is that it is an "ineffective way" to fight the "war on terror." As Woolsey put it at Camp Democracy's opening day, the war in Iraq has made "the world a more dangerous place and increase[d] the terrorist threat... [It has] created more jihadists and inspire[d] more hatred of America among Muslim extremists..."

"Emphasizing the "terrorist threat" and "Muslim extremists" is not exactly a principled basis on which to organize an antiwar movement.

"This only goes to show how little difference there is between the so-called "progressive" wing of the Democratic Party and the corporate powerbrokers who run it.

"In 2004, Dennis Kucinich campaigned in the presidential primary for months denouncing John Kerry's support for the invasion of Iraq. Then, at the Democrats' convention, he disciplined his supporters to shut up and get in line behind John "I'll send more troops to Iraq" Kerry.

"The PDA politicians put their loyalty to the Democratic Party above the interests of the movement. They aren't part of the process of building an antiwar movement that puts ending the war as its primary goal, but are an obstacle to it.

"The longer it takes our movement to reject all versions of lesser evilism, the longer it will take to build a movement powerful enough to win peace and social justice.

Torture--American As Apple Pie--Bush & Congress Say So

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"THE GOOD NEWS about the agreement reached yesterday between the Bush administration and Republican senators on the detention, interrogation and trial of accused terrorists is that Congress will not -- as President Bush had demanded -- pass legislation that formally reinterprets U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions. Nor will the Senate explicitly endorse the administration's use of interrogation techniques that most of the world regards as cruel and inhumane, if not as outright torture. Trials of accused terrorists will be fairer than the commission system outlawed in June by the Supreme Court.

"The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.

Army Corps Faked Budget Entries--Covering Bechtel's Butt

Tweet "The audit marks the second time in recent months that a government agency has been charged with accounting improprieties.

"The U.S. Agency for International Development was accused in June of resorting to accounting tricks in an effort to hide the spiraling costs of a children's hospital in Iraq, a project that received special backing from First Lady Laura Bush.

"San Francisco-based Bechtel, the chief contractor, was removed from the project after the inspector general determined that the cost to finish the hospital had soared from $50 million to almost $170 million.

"U.S. officials now hope to have an Iraqi company finish the work.