A Tale of Two Headlines

Both under "Terrorism" on MSNBC this morning...

Judge: Detainee's abuse claim not believable

Bush vetoes bill banning Waterboarding

A judge ruled Friday that an Australian man's claim that he had been mistreated in custody in Pakistan before being sent to the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay could not be believed.

President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ruled against Mamdouh Habib in the man's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper, which Habib said had implied he lied about being tortured.

"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."

"I am satisfied that Mr. Habib's claims that he was seriously mistreated in the place of detention in Islamabad cannot be accepted," McClellan said.

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said.

He said Habib was "prone to exaggerate," "evasive" and had made claims about mistreatment in Pakistan and Egypt which could not be sustained.

Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Bush "will go down in history as the torture president" for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques "that any reasonable observer would call torture."

Habib, an Egyptian-born immigrant, was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001. He says he was held there for 28 days and was interrogated by Americans before being transferred to Egypt, where he alleged he was beaten, shocked with electricity and nearly drowned while under interrogation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Bush often warns against ignoring the advice of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq. Yet the president has rejected the Army Field Manual, which recognizes that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information, said Reid, D-Nev.

The intelligence bill would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners. The Army field manual in 2006 banned using methods such as waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners.

The military specifically prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The CIA also prohibited the practice in 2006 ... But the administration has refused to rule definitively on whether it is torture. Bush has said many times that his administration does not torture.

After six months, he was sent to the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay. He was returned to Australia in January 2005.

Australian judges continue to believe that George Bush's policies haven't been resulting in kidnapping and torturing their citizens. I guess Australia believes that if the U.S. eventually releases their citizens after torturing them it's okay. The U.S. government decided that Habib was innocent after all.

Fortunately for Canadian citizens, their judicial system isn't so trusting of countries who want to torture their people.

The acclaimed Army officer who literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency weighs in on 24, its impact on the U.S. military’s view of torture, and the implications for the fight against terrorism: Torture is NOT ACCEPTABLE (from Foreign Policy.com)

Why Torture doesn't work (also from Foreign Policy.com)

UPDATE: I noticed that Frederick has been on fire lately, check his blog out...

UPDATE 2: Funny shit of the day : Whiny Cops -More Proof that the Internet has EVERYTHING. This site is for cops to whine about other cops giving them tickets and not letting them slide "for the brotherhood". It's fucking hilarious to see our "Proud men in blue" nominating their fellow officers for Dick of the Month. The whole point of the website seems to be that cops think they should only treat citizens like shit, not each other. The indignant cop who put this site up might get a little more respect from me if it was just a site for anyone to bitch about the poor common sense of traffic officers. But the attitude that Cops should get favorable treatment when breaking the law is just bullshit.

Israel kills 17

...and seriously wounds an 8 year old boy, most likely using flechette weopons in civilian areas.

Bush sure is making headway in the Peace Process, isn't he? ISRAEL is the greatest terrorist nation in the world and should be disarmed and sanctioned... Neocon murderers WILL NEVER support peace. Vote in a President who will quit giving Israel weapons and money to continue spreading terror.

From Common Dreams IDF Kills...

and from the comments there...

It’s really too bad that seemingly all what israelis learned from their holocaust is how to oppress and exterminate their neighbors. Perhaps they should open the Torah.
Book of Leviticus:
‘You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.’chapter 19, verse 34

Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. (chapter 19, verse 18)
peace
...
The Reich of Zion is predicated on the conviction that Israel owns the moral high ground in perpetuity– as if the Moral High Ground were conferred on the state of Israel as weregild by an abashed world in apology for the Holocaust.

Even if that were true, the government of the little Reich has long since been washed off that high ground in a deluge of blood shed by its wanton, genocidal violence against aboriginal societies which resists Zionist territorial aggression.

Israel and the US compose a binary system of rogue states run by ruthless deathmongers– not to put too fine a point on it.
...
So Bush went to Israel to give Olmert green light to steal and kill. Hamas again offered a truce which the murderous Olmert decided to ignore. Israel deserves every bad things coming its way!
And Bush is now exposed as another poodle for Israel! This is for folks who thinks that this is not the case
...
Israelis killed Palestinians? Oh that’s okay, as long as not one precious Israeli is killed. Israel and the U.S. might drop a bomb on the Palestinians if one of “God’s Chosen People” were killed, even accidentally. You could even blame the Iranians for it.
Good job on the “peace effort,” Chimp. We can see you and your buddies the Israelis have taken your visit seriously.
...
I agree, the Israelis don’t seem to have learned a thing from the Holocaust. They have no compassion, empathy, or any humane feelings for the people they are oppressing.
Did you see the Chimp wearing a Jewish skull cap when he was in Israel a few days ago? I guess he and Rice consider themselves Israelis. On her first trip to Israel, she gushed to the Israelis and said how she felt like it was “home” to her.
..
I see that the Jewish Nation has provided our Sadist-In-Chief with the human sacrifice that he needs to keep that coprophagous smirk on his face. I cringe to think what God and man will do to the American people to balance this and all the other Iseaeli atrocities commited in the name of their God of Cruelty and Avrice.
...
Thank you all for caring enough to comment on these latest horrors inflicted by the Israelis on the Palestinian people. I continue to be amazed at how little press Israeli aggression gets, although I’m sure that only shows my own naivety. The word needs to get out in as many ways as possible. I somehow think that if people at least KNEW what was going on, there might be a chance for justice. I’ll check out “boycott Israel” and will commit to post messages to as many news outlets as I can each time I hear of an assault like this. My question to them: Why aren’t you reporting terrorist actions by the Israelis?What other ideas do people have? How do we get the U.S. to quit supporting these crimes against humanity?

And as for some blowback, how about this comment....

"To kill a snake you’ve got to go for its head. America happens to be Israel’s head."

That sentiment is a large reason why Israel needs to be stopped, and stopped BY AMERICA, from murdering its neighbors on a wholesale basis year after year after year. Israel's actions and the retaliations of suicide bombers are both terrorist actions. To stop one, you've got to stop the other.

Murder is murder. Israel's actions sponsor more Israeli deaths. They will NEVER learn. It is time to stop giving the ignorant bastards more bombs and money with which they will continue the destruction.

ONE DOWN

War Profiteer Arrested

If not us, who. If not now, when

This is actually a reply to one of my longtime detractors, a fellow Texan, Caveman. It is response to his canned reply to yesterdays' post:

Caveman said:
"Fade do you belive everything the terrorist say?"

Fade said:
No, I hate everything the neocons stand for.

Seriously, How in the hell do you separate one of these terrorists from the other? How do you separate the men who sponsors kidnapping and torture on noncombatants, who has ordered clusterbombs dropped in civilian areas, (Rumsfeld,Bush) from the men who sends teens into civilian areas strapped with a suicide bomb (Hamas leaders)?

Both are evil men who use others to sow seeds of destruction. Both groups' acts do not Protect their peoples nor secure their holdings. The Iraq "War" is NOT a war. The Israel/Palestinian situation is NOT a war. A war is a battle between two organized sides for control. There are many on both sides of each of those situations that want only peace. But we are infiltrated by terrorists like YOU, Caveman, on every side; men like you who SPONSOR terror, murder, violence, mayhem and help fan the flames of hate towards their own people.

Do you want to know what a terrorist thinks, Caveman? Look in the mirror. Everytime you say that we need to kill them all, everytime you say it's okay to kill their children, everytime you turn a blind eye to yet another dead Palestinian family - You are condoning Terrorist activities. I don't cringe in fear of those who want to kill me. I don't want to kill their family members or their kids, or their entire nation in retribution for the hate of a few. I rise above the shit that you are wallowing in. I Hold out my hand in TRUE peace, in True Humanity to those who desire peace- and luckily for us all- there are more of US than there are of you bloodthirsty bastards.

I look at my kids, and I do have fears- Fears that my kids will live in a world of hate because people are too damn stubborn to give up their hates and find common ground in their humanity. Maybe one day, you can put your own humanity before your hate. I hope for ALL of our sakes, that everyone of you out there that believes that terror,murder,and torture is the answer can do so for the world's sake. It starts with each of us.

If not us, who? If not now, when?
Murdering each other endlessly is not an answer.

The Destroyers and the Destroyed

This is how America defends itself?

from World can't wait...

Kim, long distance trucker and mom, writes about Marine returned form Fallujah, working at a Denny’s in Rollo MO:

"In Fallujah, it was like in the Bible,” he began slowly. “When they marked the houses with lamb’s blood, and the Angel of Death flew over and killed the firstborn sons in all the houses that weren’t marked. They marked the houses…and the ones that weren’t marked, they had us go in and open fire and…” He stopped speaking and only made gestures.

“The kids?” asked my co-driver.

“Yes.”

The waiter’s words came a little faster now. “If people knew what was really happening over there, they’d rise up and say, ‘bring our kids home NOW!’ If people knew, they wouldn’t stand for it.”

Beit- Hanoun : Murder and Terror, IDF Style

More Murder to come... IDF not done yet...

Arming Terrorists : America supplies the world with weapons

Why Americans are clueless to Israeli Aggression: Media Bias

Israeli Atrocities : Nazi Solutions to Jewish Problems

Israelis killing more and more civilians ... Gaza deaths

And at the United Nations, the U.S. continues to Veto measures that would save lives and promote peace- just so Israel can continue their murderous rampages unchecked...

Fuck em they're just Arabs

The weapons that our Government is selling to anybody and everyone end up, time and time again- in the hands of those who would kill Americans. Clusterbombs are dropped hours before a CEASE FIRE in record numbers. Those clusterbombs are still killing Lebanese children TODAY, months after the battle is over. Israel not only kills Palestinians and Lebanese in their lust to blitzkrieg their enemies, but also kills jews among them who want peace. They run over American women with bulldozers, and apparently can do no wrong as far as the media is concerned.

It is well past time to STOP the arrogant racist attacks of the Israelis. Yes, I know, the Palestinians want to destroy them. And why WOULDN'T They after all of the above? There are peace activists on both sides. A big step in getting Israel to behave is cutting off American support for their immoral and murderous actions. Its time to cut terrorism's heart out and stop cutting off one of its arms only to watch it regrow them. And a large piece of the heart of terror is Israel's terrorist acts.

Protect America- It is time to disarm Israel. Let the Jews and the Palestinians enjoy an equal footing for once. Maybe that will teach them the lessons they DID NOT Learn from the actions of the Germans leading up to the holocaust. As much as Israel warmongers might want a Palestinian Holocaust- We SHOULD stop the IDF like we stopped the Nazis.

We are ALL Human. Let's not forget that.

Fear of the Democrats

If there is one thing the Republican party knows it's fear.

From President Bush on down the line to the man on the street, the prevailing emotion of Republicans is fear. Fear of terror. Fear of Iran. Fear of North Korea. Fear of Mexican immigrants. This President and his inner circle of self-servants tell the American people what they should fear and their followers run in circles screaming. They churn the waters and throw the bloody chum out until their base is caught up in a frenzy, frothing at the mouth and biting even themselves. They prop up the boogie men of Iran and North Korea to terrify the American public- to sidetrack the people from discerning their true motives: just enriching themselves and their associates- while America is weakened by their games. Keeping Americans scared keeps this administration safe, even though it does NOTHING for the safety of the country.

The real fears of all Americans should be the fears of unending war, of nuclear strikes initiated by a power drunk administration that result in global nuclear war, and of immoral, murderous actions that dishonor the United States and create MORE Terrorists across the planet who want to kill us. Those are rational fears.

But rationality is wasted on this new breed of Republican. As those of us on the left know, the leaders of this new Republican movement- the Neocon cabal- don't fear North Korea or Iran any more than they "Feared" Saddam. So what DO they fear? What does Bush fear? What does Cheney fear? What does Rove fear?

They have proved that they are not afraid of bankrupting the government - and still cry for more tax cuts for their millionaire friends. They have proved they aren't afraid of breaking the U.S. military- cutting military funds: to the VA, to disabled Iraq vets, to soldiers' wages - while simultaneous funneling BILLIONS to war profiteers, Private Mercenary armies FOR those war profiteers, and corrupt Iraqi pyramid schemes that do absolutely nothing to improve the situation IN Iraq (which could have saved countless lives and actually ACCOMPLISHED THE MISSION). They don't fear the constitution, or our nation's laws, or the laws of other nations- as they kidnap and torture citizens of other countries- under the flimsiest of evidence. They don't fear the Supreme court- ignoring the rulings and pushing through the destruction of Habeus Corpus without a valid reason at all. They don't fear the destruction of an entire American city- as they proved when they let the people of New Orleans die during Katrina.

The only thing these priveleged men of power and money fear is losing their money and power.

What do they Fear? The Democrats. The ones who can take their power, so gluttonly snatched up, in the wake of 9-11, away. And so, on top of everything else that they have told YOU, the American public to fear- they now tell you to fear the Democrats. They tell you to fear the "Unknowns" of a Democrat Congress.

They have the utter contempt for you, to tell you to fear that Democrats may HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE!

They have the sheer arrogance to tell you to fear losing them as your Shepherds!!

Ask yourself what good has this group of corrupt and ineffective Republicans done for America.
Ask yourself what good has the Invasion of Iraq done for either America OR Iraq.
Ask yourself what good has this Administration done for ANYONE besides the top 1% of Americans.
Ask yourself what good has this group of incompetents done for our Superpower standing in regards to China and Russia.

These "Shepherds" are wolves. There is ONLY ONE THING That President Bush, Karl Rove, and the rest of these contemptible bastards FEAR more than they fear the Democrats.
And that is that the American public will put aside their fears for Reason and Democracy and morality.

Gitmo Investigators fighting AGAINST Torture

Finally some GOOD news out of Guantanamo Bay... Today's MSNBC reports that honor and common sense have not been completely lost in the case of Gitmo. We find that senior U.S. law enforcement investigators have been struggling against inhumanity, indecency, and FOR interrogations and punishments that will actually be effective in our battle to defend ourselves from terrorists and get some real intelligence.

In part one of a two part series, MSNBC investigates how these brave men have fought for their country in order to live up to their duties in the best way possible. They have set aside the tactics of Soviet style brutality ala Rumsfeld/Gonzales that only hurts America and inspires more hate against us all from the rest of the world.

Gitmo Report

EXCERPT:
[...]

former leaders of the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute war crimes, and would embarrass the nation when they became public knowledge.

[...]

The law enforcement agents, who were building criminal cases against the detainees, also say that military prosecutors told them that abusive interrogations at Guantanamo compromised the chance to bring some suspected terrorists to trial. Among them, the agents say, is Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi whom the Pentagon has described as the intended 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"We were told by the Office of Military Commissions, based on what was done to him, it made his case unprosecutable," said Mark Fallon, the deputy commander and special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigation Task Force from 2002 to 2004. "It would taint any confession if obtained under coercion. They were unwilling to move forward with any prosecution of al-Qahtani."

[...]

It was two years before the photos emerged from Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon cops said, when they began arguing that coercive or abusive interrogations would not serve war-fighting or justice.

"No. 1, it’s not going to work," said Col. Brittain P. Mallow, the commander of the task force from 2002 to 2005. No. 2, if it does work, it’s not reliable. No. 3, it may not be legal, ethical or moral. No. 4, it’s going to hurt you when you have to prosecute these guys. No. 5, sooner or later, all of this stuff is going to come to light, and you’re going to be embarrassed."

I understand there is a knee jerk mentality to "Get Medieval" on their asses. But that's just ridiculous over-macho posturing. If we want to protect the United States, it MUST be done with honor, dignity, and morality. If you believe that torture works- you might want to google Chechnya and see how well its working for Putin. (It's not). Here's more on why torture doesn't work, why it hurts America and why it will result in more dead soldiers and civilians in the future -

Torture

The point is- MORE and MORE actual investigators and professionals are coming out of the woodwork, to repeat, louder and louder - that Torture doesn't work. Maybe you can believe them- and NOT just regular American citizens like me - as our nation's current sadistic leaders continue to offer the people who they are supposed to be serving, helpings of twisted bloody failures time and again.

I do worry quite a bit about my children growing up in a world that is starting to hate and disrespect Americans for the disrespectful and reprehensible actions of our current leadership.

EXCERPT
"We will not be a party to this'"

What makes me intensely proud of all these individuals was they said, ‘We will not be party to this, even if we're ordered to do so,’" said Alberto J. Mora, the former general counsel of the Navy, who ultimately got Secretary Rumsfeld to roll back permission for some of the harshest interrogation techniques. "They are heroes, and there's no other way to describe them. They demonstrated enormous personal courage and personal integrity in standing up for American values and the system we all live for."


Part Two of the MSNBC Report

Who do we want to be, as a country?

"It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives." Dorothy Thompson

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." Goethe

The choice, to me, is a very easy one.