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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
1. It is my-- "defense of superior orders," in the jargon of military justice.
2. Don't know if the questioned act is legal.
3. I know the military intelligence community and other governmental agencies, including the CIA endorse this.
4. al-Qaeda detainees aren't protected under GC; Bush and Rumsfeld told me so. I can look the other way and not feel guilty.
5. I can stretch the confinements imposed on me as a guard/ interrogator- suggested by the MCJ, GC, NurhTrials and such, after all, my buddies outside this prison are shedding blood for freedom--these detainees (hint:prisoners) are mine.
Baloney. A true patriot would be proud to be prosecuted in accordance with our laws if it meant saving American lives. A false patriot would selfishly pervert our system of justice by avoiding accountability for their actions; for instance, retroactively modifying the War Crimes Act of 96 in the Military Commissions Act of 06, or telecom immunity. These false patriots are destroying the very way of life they claim they seek to protect.
It only grows. So if you imagine that the Era of Obama will presage some happy furry period where the President is weaker, milder and somehow less inclined to use power you are delusional.
I'm hesitant to ask, but did I get deleted (the sanction/oversight comment)yesterday
Of course not. At least not deliberately. It's possible it was an accident, but I doubt it. Let me check. There's no deletions for being O/T.
You're right - it was deleted. It must have been an accident - just restored it. Sorry.
"After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. . ..." -- Jimmy Carter
Three dead in 7 years!?! Jesus, Joseph and Mary! The town was "traumatized? Get outta here! We have more killed in traffic here in a month that they had in 7 years!
Does anyone have a total count on all deaths by these home made "rockets" that are fueled by sugar and fertilizer?
Israel May Face Charges for War Crime
by Mel Frykberg, Published on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by Inter Press Service (see sig)
RAMALLAH - Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza.
"The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS.
Palestinian Authority (PA) delegate to Britain Professor Manuel Hassassian has said the PA will launch legal proceedings against Israeli leaders it says are responsible for war crimes in Gaza, according to a Palestinian news report.
Another 22 Palestinians were killed Wednesday morning in bombing and shelling as Israel's Operation Cast Lead entered day 11. The dead included four people killed in the shelling of a children's playground near a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza city.
Six Israelis were treated for shock as several rockets from Gaza hit Israel.
Hassassian's comment came in the wake of Israeli shelling of a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp Tuesday afternoon which killed over 40 Palestinians. Several other UN schools in the Gaza Strip were also hit in the last few days, resulting in a number of casualties.
The UN called for an investigation, stating that prior to the current operation the Israelis were given the precise coordinates of all UN institutions in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has already condemned an Israeli attack on two members of the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) last week. The ICRC said the medics were wearing fluorescent jackets, their ambulances were clearly marked, and their flashing lights were on.
Nihal Al-Akras, chairman of the Palestinian Health Care Committees, asked the international community to pressure Israel to stop firing on medical facilities and workers in the Gaza Strip.
Akhras's comments followed Tuesday's bombing of the Ad-Dura hospital in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza city. Three mobile clinics provided by a Danish NGO, DanChurchAid, were also destroyed.
"We've been able to help the wounded and suffering so far because our vehicles have been present and ready inside Gaza. This possibility of emergency aid is now in ruins," said Henrik Stubkjær, secretary general of DanChurchAid.
"We are deeply shocked that the Israeli air strikes directly prevent the humanitarian aid effort," he added.
According to DanChurchAid the clinics were clearly marked with red crosses and were parked in the Union of Healthcare headquarters.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/07-1
There are still confirmation hearings to be had for Obama's appointments. If there was so much as a whiff of possible investigations, the Republican's and possibly some Dems, would do whatever maneuvers possible to hold up any confirmations...
Like Glenn says, let's wait and see what the Obama admin's actions are once they're all in office , and not condemn anyone based on rumors.
Word! Nice job of myth-busting. Putting the risible myths of Kondracke et ilk up against the Nuremberg Principles, hallowed by the hanging of its exemplars, jolts me, it rings me like a bell.
There's a method to the madness of myth-making. This right here is the most exciting potential of this new medium: busting their perverse myths even as they deploy them.
Kristol MethBy Scott Horton
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/01/hbc-90004151
William Kristol gives thousands of Americans hope. He shows us that a mediocrity can find a home as a columnist at The New York Times. His latest column, discussing—well, what exactly is it discussing? It’s hard to make any sense of it. It starts as a justification of Israeli operations in Gaza and quickly transforms itself into a call for war against Iran. The Gaza operation is, after all, just a warm-up. I just came across Joe Klein’s dissection of Kristol’s column in Time:
Kristol is a cagey guy. He benefits from the delusion of Iranian potency. The more menacing and evil Iran seems, the stronger the arguments for the war that Kristol and many other Jewish neoconservatives really want: a U.S. attack on Iran to make the world safe for Israel (as if such a war could or would accomplish that). He comes very close to endorsing that in his last paragraph…In the end, Kristol’s saber-rattling is the death rattle of a simplistic, extremist ideology that has caused the U.S. great damage. A more sensible, centrist approach to international affairs won’t have the bang or melodrama of military kinetics. It will take time to work, if it works. But it also won’t have the bloodshed and torture that have stained our nation’s history these past eight years.
There are two weeks left. The Neocons may yet get their cherished war—not this silly skirmish in Gaza, but the real war they’ve always wanted, the one with Iran. Emphasis added.]
So we are having some effect on the ability of the Right to jack us around.
The recent history of US myth-jacking, as I've been saying, has something to do with Joseph Campbell's lectures at the Foreign Service Institute, beginning in 1956. It has something to do with Milton Friedman's Frankenstein's lab at University of Chicago.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what happened in Chile.NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I think Democracy Now! viewers and listeners know this chapter in history, which was that after Salvador Allende was elected, a democratic socialist was elected, in 1970, there was a plot to overthrow him. Nixon famously said, “Make the economy scream.” And the plot had many elements, an embargo and so on, and finally the support for Pinochet’s coup on September 11, 1973. And we often hear about the Chicago Boys in Chile, but we don’t hear that many details about who they actually were.
And so, what I do in the book is I retell this chapter of history, but, for me, the economic agenda of the Pinochet government is much more front and center, because I think we do know the human rights abuses, we know about Pinochet rounding up people, taking them to stadiums, the summary executions, the torture. We know a little bit less about the economic program that he pushed in in the window of opportunity that opened up after the shock of that coup. And this is where it fits into the shock doctrine thesis. http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/17/the_shock_doctrine_naomi_klein_on
NAOMI KLEIN"And so, the Chicago Boys were born. And it was considered a success, and the Ford Foundation got in on the funding. And hundreds and hundreds of Latin American students, on full scholarships, came to the University of Chicago in the 1950s and '60s to study here to try to engage in what Juan Gabriel Valdes, Chile's foreign minister after the dictatorship finally ended, described as a project of deliberate ideological transfer, taking these extreme-right ideas, that were seen as marginal even in the United States, and transplanting them to Latin America. That was his phrase--that is his phrase." http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/6/naomi_klein
I'm tellin' ya, people! Jacking whole nations--or single voting blocs--with myths, not just lies, and sticking them with the bill, is the state of the art in manufacturing consent.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
