January 04, 2010
The Underpants Bomber
I like Rachel Maddow's take:
The rallying cry now from Republicans is that we shouldn‘t try the Christmas bomber in civilian court—that, instead, he should be tried in a military tribunal, declared an enemy combatant. I mean, what‘s the value of a military tribunal here, other than trying to make political hay out of this case? Really, what‘s the justice, anti-terrorist, counterterrorist value on this?
You really think this kid can‘t be convicted? You really think we don‘t have enough evidence beyond the—beyond the, I don‘t know, 300 or so eyewitnesses who were on the plane? The fact that we have the weapon that he tried to use? The fact that he confessed? You think that‘s not enough to get this kid convicted?
You have that little faith in our criminal justice system? That little faith in the rule of law? You don‘t believe that a supermax federal American prison is capable of holding this kid? You think it might be cool, instead, to martyr this kid as some impressive soldier, instead of some idiot confused rich kid who couldn‘t even handle blowing up his own junk with a bomb that was secreted in his own underpants?
We‘re supposed to take national security advice from you guys?
Really?
Posted by jnfr at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2008
Anniversary
Really there's not much to say, so I'll let Keith Olbermann speak for me.
Posted by jnfr at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2007
Homeland Marketing Fiasco
Here is a young man who was interrogated in Chicago for taking a picture of one of the cartoon marketing lights which caused so much hysteria in Boston yesterday. What kind of a country have we become?
Here's his story:
And here's a picture of one of the lights.
Posted by jnfr at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2005
Reacting to terror
I am shocked, as everyone must be, by the terror attacks in London today. I hope the casualties are few and that the people take good care of each other in difficult circumstances.
I'm reassured somewhat by the matter-of-fact approach the English take to this sort of attack. After all, terrorism isn't new to them.
A friend pointed out this morning that while everyone is frightened of terrorist attacks, it's most important to stand up with whatever courage we can find and insist that these attacks will not be allowed to change our way of life, and that we will not surrender our freedom in the face of our fear. That's a message I'm glad to hear on a day like this, and a message I've really missed hearing from our government since 9/11.
Posted by jnfr at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
"Unmitigated disaster"
Over in Salon, Sydney Blumenthal writes about an internal paper that the Department of Defense has quietly posted to its web site. Apparently a task force of experts from the military, the diplomatic corps, military-oriented businesses, and academia was put together to review progress in the war on terror, including the invasion of Iraq. Their conclusions were quite negative on how things have gone so far.
The task force discovered more than a chaotic vacuum, a government sector "in crisis," though it found that, too: "Missing are strong leadership, strategic direction, adequate coordination, sufficient resources, and a culture of measurement and evaluation." Inevitably, as it journeyed deeper into the recesses of the Bush administration's foreign policy, the task force documented the unparalleled failure of its fundamental premises. "America's negative image in world opinion and diminished ability to persuade are consequences of factors other than the failure to implement communications strategies," the report declares. What emerges in this new Pentagon paper is a scathing indictment of an expanding and unmitigated disaster based on stubborn ignorance of the world and failed concepts that bear little relation to empirical reality except insofar as they confirm and incite gathering hatred among Muslims.
You can find the paper itself here (.PDF file), if you have a strong stomach.
Posted by jnfr at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2004
Bill Moyer and NOW tonight
If you get a chance to catch Bill Moyer's PBS show NOW tonight, he's skewering Condi on terrorism and 9/11.
UPDATE: They're kicking Delay's ass too.
Posted by jnfr at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2004
U.S. using "torture flights"
The London Times has received confidential logs showing that the United States may be using an executive jet to shuttle suspected terrorists to countries which will use torture to interrogate them. The U.S. denies these charges of "torture by proxy".
Witnesses described seeing the prisoners handed to US agents whose faces were masked by hoods. The clothes of the handcuffed prisoners were cut off and they were dressed in nappies covered by orange overalls before being forcibly given sedatives by suppository.
The Gulfstream flew them to Egypt, where both prisoners claimed they were beaten and tortured with electric shocks to their genitals. Despite liberal Swedish laws on freedom of information, diplomatic telegrams on the case released to the media were edited to conceal the complaints of torture.
Hamida Shalaby, Agiza’s mother, said: “The mattress had electricity . . . When they connected to the electricity, his body would rise up and then fall down and this up and down would go on until they unplugged electricity.”
A month before the Swedish extradition, the same Gulfstream was identified by Masood Anwar, a Pakistani newspaper reporter in Karachi. Airport staff told Anwar they had seen Jamil Gasim, a Yemeni student who was suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, being bundled aboard the jet by a group of white men wearing masks. The jet took Gasim to Jordan, since when he has disappeared. ...
Among the countries where prisoners have been sent by America is Uzbekistan, a close ally and a dictatorship whose secret police are notorious for their interrogation methods, including the alleged boiling of prisoners. The Gulfstream made at least seven trips to the Uzbek capital. ...
In a memo, whose disclosure last month contributed to [former British ambassador Craig] Murray’s removal, he told Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, that the CIA station chief in Tashkent had “readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence”.
Posted by jnfr at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)