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The US is still preparing some sort of coup or destabilization in Venezuela.
2% of Iraqis regard the Bush forces as liberators. A larger percentage support Saddam Hussein.
Saddam Hussein was a murderous dictator. Unfortunately, so is Bush.
Watching TV screens affects melatonin production, which could lead to sleep difficulties and earlier puberty
British journalist Peter Hounam has been banned from Israel after he spoke with Mordechai Vanunu.
Another article, which I don't know a usable URL for, reported that Hounam was going to testify before the Israeli Supreme Court, which will be hearing Vanunu's case. This ban is thus a way to exclude Hounam's testimony without admitting it.
Suspicious connections are coming out between the perpetrators of the March bombings in Madrid and the Spanish police.
The second article in Spanish seems to say that the telephone number in the possession of Carmen Toro did not really belong to Sanchez Manzano, but rather to a policeman investigating the bombings, who has made a practice of giving out that false name to informers. But regardless of whether this phone number on a piece of paper proves anything, the fact that the police did not use their informers to prevent the bombings is suspicious.
When Iraqis distrust Bush-style corporate-run democracy, they are following where Abraham Lincoln led.
Americans, do you want the Bush/Kerry brand of freedom, or Lincoln's?
Just as Bush was boasting that 2003 showed a decrease in terrorism, the State Department had to admit that the figures were wrong.
The UN, the EU, Russia and the US endorsed Sharon's document that declares that peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine are impossible.
Sharon's claim is that the Palestinian Authority is not sincere about aiming for peace. However, Israeli intelligence has verified that the claim is and was false.
More troops and aid are needed to maintain safety for the elections in Afghanistan.
Bangladesh has accused the leaders of an anti-poverty organization with trying to overthrow the government. What was the alleged plot? A large protest rally.
The Bangladesh government apparently regards political criticism as a crime. It isn't the first time. Author Taslima Nasrin was prosecuted for her books, which describe the mistreatment of the Hindu minority.
A CIA contractor is facing charges for killing a prisoner in Afghanistan.
Back-pressure like this is essential, but if we are to end the torture and killing of prisoners, we must also eliminate the pressure for abuse, pressure that comes straight from the top.
A military judge ruled that an accused torture-soldier's lawyers can question the generals in charge of the Bush forces in Iraq.
South Korea's government plans to go ahead with sending 3,000 more troops to Iraq, despite the threat to kill a South Korean hostage.
The government is right in refusing to withdraw troops because of a threat of violence. The right reason to withdraw South Korean troops from Iraq is that the invasion was a war of aggression, and Bush does not deserve their support. Koreans recognize this; when their government does not, it shows its true colors--it represents Bush, not the Korean people.
The British occupation of Iraq in 1917-1920 followed a course that holds lessons about the occupation today.
I read that the British troops fighting in Iraq in 1916 found that flies caused them lots of trouble. Too bad they didn't think of declaring Iraq a "no fly" zone.
A bipartisan group of US diplomats and generals have condemned the Bush administration.
I take issue with one sentence in this statement: "No loyal American would question our ultimate right to act alone in our national interest." If this were limited specifically to defense against a real attack, I would agree; but the statement as made is too broad and not correct. There are forms of action, such as invading another country, which require more justification than mere "national interest".
The FBI tried to subpoena reporter Declan McCullagh's notes by calling him an internet service provider--and tried to gag him about it, too.
NAFTA is destroying US environmental regulations.
The Church of Scientology's drug-treatment activity is running into trouble in California, because of pseudoscience that probably comes from Scientology dogma.
Israeli air and ground forces are carrying out continuous attacks against...olive trees.
2% of Iraqis regard the Bush forces as liberators. A larger percentage (though not many) support Saddam Hussein.
Civil wars threaten the lives of civilians in many countries.
The Department of Homeland Security is working hard to keep America safe from...immigrants who have smoked pot.
I have a few comments. First, note how they use the letter of the law as an excuse to crush individuals in despite of the spirit of the law.
Second, if there is another terrorist attack, the FBI and DHS will have worse things to answer for than misdirection of resources. The persistent refusal to investigate certain people, both before and after 9/11, is directly responsible. Sibel Edmonds is trying to tell us more.
When did higher-ups in the Bush forces know about torture in Iraq? A November 2003 Army report detailed many abuses of prisoners.
Paul Bremmer was informed in November 2003 (if not before).
This article shows that torture practices were public knowledge in 2002.
Standing on the street, I saw a man walk by. As he walked away, I saw the sticker on his backpack: "Non-polluting vehicle." Seconds too late, I thought of responding to it: "No shit?"
Everyone who lives produces waste products, but some ways of living produce more than others. The US way of life produces the most of all, and uses the most resources of all.
Former Israeli soldiers who guarded settlers in the midst of the Palestinian city of Hebron have mounted an exhibit of the photos that show what the occupation is like.
Organizers of the show who were questioned by the police say the police are trying to intimidate them, not trying to punish or prevent abuses against Palestinians.
Scholars are trying to analyze the writing of the Koran, as they have analyzed the writing of the Jewish and Christian Bible, but they face the threat of suppression from governments of Islamic countries. It is not unusual for those who criticize Islam, even without opposing it, to be persecuted.
People should have a right to choose their religious beliefs, but respecting people's right to believe in a religion does not entail respecting the beliefs themselves. Nobody's beliefs are beyond criticism. Islamic attempts to suppress the human rights of critics or scholars should be condemned utterly.
Fahrenheit 911 is hardly available in some Republican areas of the US; reportedly the concentration of the cinema business plays a role in this.
The corporate media exert control at many levels over what ideas are expressed to the public in the US.
Attributed to the operator of oilempire.us:
The 2004 "election" features a plutocrat from the occult Skull and Bones secret society who supports police state legislation, a new gas pipeline from north Alaska, more troops to Iraq, the war in Columbia, nuclear power, delaying fuel efficiency improvements in cars until 2015 and opposes the Kyoto Treaty. And then we have the incumbent...
Bush's policy on torture and the Geneva Conventions has a precedent.
It's easy to say "Torture is justified because our country's survival is at stake." It's easy to say, because the people who say it are never called upon to prove it is true. They simply say it, and that's sufficient. This talk is as cheap, for the Bush administration, as Iraqi or American lives.
The Bush-appointed government in Iraq is asking for NATO training, since it cannot get NATO troops. NATO should resist this form of slippery inclusion in the occupation.
Biden accused Bush of creating a "security vacuum" by pulling back Bush forces troops. What he's referring to is an attempt to "Iraqize" the fighting so as to reduce the casualties among the occupiers.
In Vietnam, "Vietnamization" was the path that led to US withdrawal from the quagmire. Bush has lost the battle for Iraqis' hearts and minds, so only a permanent occupation force can keep the imposed government in place. Perhaps "Iraqization" will provide a face-saving way to withdraw the Bush forces from Iraq, and let the inevitable defeat occur.
When the Bush administration decided to attack Iraq, it treated the danger of terrorism as secondary to maintainance of imperial control. This is part of a larger pattern of priorities, lasting for decades, and illuminated here by Noam Chomsky.
Al-Qaeda's Thumbs Up for Bush
Bush has backed down from his attempt to bully the UN into giving US soldiers immunity from war crimes prosecution in the International Criminal Court.
Bush likes to say that the US will prosecute anyone responsible for war crimes. This list now includes Bush himself, since he signed a document saying he can authorize torture.
We will see if he is prosecuted in the US; if not, will the ICC get a chance at him?
Judge Bybee, who tried to excuse torture by redefining the word, ought to be impeached.
In May, Police in Providence, Rhode Island, harassed activist Peter Zendran, arrested him for no reason, lied to him, then imprisoned him in unhealthy conditions.
The fabricated charges were dropped in June by the court.
A leading Russian anti-Nazi campaigner was murdered, as the Nazi movement there grows.
Police in many countries have a pattern of disregarding violence committed by Nazi gangs, even up to the level of murder, unless it attracts public attention that forces them to crack down.
Houses used for making methamphetamine become toxic sites. This is yet another aspect of the harm done by the war on drugs.
The UK is planning a stem-cell research complex, which will do the medical research that Christian fanatics won't let the US support.
If these fanatics would rather die to protect embryos' cells, I would say "Go ahead, if you are really sure." But they want you and me to die for embryos too.
The economic statistics of NAFTA, demonstrating how much it has harmed most Americans, Mexicans, and Canadians.
The same text as a nicely printable handout.
The result is that 1/5 of the children in the US are growing up in poverty, and many Americans don't get enough to eat.
More US teenagers smoke pot than tobacco. In ten years, tobacco use rates have gone down a lot, while pot use has gone up a little.
Since tobacco is addictive and marijuana basically isn't, the shift is a good thing in itself. More, it also shows that legalizing a drug and regulating it can be a better method of discouraging its use by teenagers than prohibition. It is neither wise nor just to impose the harsher prohibitions on the less dangerous drug.
Vote spoilage in US elections is targeted at blacks.
The 9/11 investigation affirmed the absence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qa'ida.
But Bush continues to defend those falsehoods--now by exaggerating "contacts" into "cooperation".
The US had contacts with the Soviet Union all through the cold war: the two countries had diplomatic relations the whole time, and starting in the 1960s there was a direct telephone line between their leaders (the famous "hot line"). It is clear that "contacts" between two organizations are not enough to conclude that both are responsible for whatever one of them does.
This latest Bush nonsense illustrates a general pattern in the behavior of today's antidemocratic rulers of ostensibly democratic countries: never admit a mistake, no matter how obvious it becomes. They figure that the right-wing mass media will support their lie, no matter how threadbare it becomes, and maybe they will fool enough people (or enough voting machines) to get elected anyway.
After a bomb killed Bush contract workers, some of whom were working on restoring electric supply, Iraqis cheered. Iraqis want their electricity supplies restored, but their anger at the Bush forces seems to be a stronger feeling.
Meanhwhile, the interim president and the Bush forces are disagreeing about who gets to set up shop in one of Saddam's large palaces.
Rumsfeld directly ordered the Bush forces in Iraq to conceal a prisoner from the ICRC, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Bush plans to violate them further, by holding thousands of prisoners without charges even after the war is officially over.
General Karpinski says her successor in charge of prisoners in Iraq, General Miller, said that the prisoners had no more rights than a dog.
The AMA opposed the FDA by endorsing nonprescription distribution of emergency contraceptives (the three-mornings-later pill).
Israeli forces routinely torture Palestinians; a Supreme Court decision that this is illegal it is more or less disregarded. The policy is based on the dubious assumption that it prevents terrorist attacks, but we know that is rarely possible.
Cory Doctorow spoke at Microsoft Research, trying to convince Microsoft to reject the idea of DRM.
While I think this speech is very well put, and I hope it convinces poeple, I also think it concedes certain points that we should not concede. It is an outrage to stop the public from copying and sharing published works, and that's why DRM is wrong.
Joke seen on the net:
The U.S. Postal Service created a stamp earlier this year with a picture of President Bush to honor his achievements while in office. However, it was found that the stamp was not sticking to envelopes. So the President established a blue ribbon commission to determine the reason for the defect.
After thorough testing, the commission published the following findings:
1. The stamp was found to be in perfect order.
2. There was nothing wrong with the adhesive.
3. People were just spitting on the wrong side.
Neoliberal economic policies in Mexico have reduced wages, while poverty and inequality have increased.
An Israeli/Palestinian joint protest stopped the wall construction, at least for a time.
Invading Iraq undermined the fight against terrorism in three ways, says Richard Clarke. And that's not counting the way it encourages Al Qa'ida recruitment.
A seriously ill woman in Montana tried to kill herself because she couldn't get the only drug that relieves the pain of her illness: marijuana. She was "saved", and now the state proposes to subject her to a year of pain in prison.
If I were in that situation, I'd consider it rational to make sure to kill myself rather than be imprisoned. I won't claim I have the courage to go through with this--it has not been tested yet--but this is what I hope I'd do.
I disagree with their view on one sub-issue: population growth contributes to hunger and many other world problems (global warming, extinction of species, and resource exhaustion), so it deserves a strong focus. However, this doesn't reduce the importance of the Institute's own work.
Warning from US intelligence: Al Qa'ida may attack before the election...to keep Bush in power.
There would be precedent for such a thing. In 1980, the Iranian hostage-takers made a deal with Reagan to prevent Carter from getting the hostages back, so that Reagan would win the election. US leaders who talk tough, such as Reagan and Bush, often do this to distract attention from the "man behind the curtain". Even America's real enemies may recognize this.
Senator Hatch is planning to ban file trading software--along with VCRs, tape recorder, computers, and many other things. All in the name of the War on Copying.
The long-predicted big jump in oil prices seems to be starting to arrive.
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions is campaigning against laws like the USA PAT RIOT act.
British journalist Elena Lappin was arrested and deported in Los Angeles because she did not have a special journalist's visa. She was kept overnight in a cell designed for sleep deprivation and humiliation, in the spirit of Abu Ghraib.
The fact that prisoners are abused in this way even when they have nothing to do with any planned crime, when they are not even going to be interrogated, shows that cruelty has become a way of life which does not require any reason.
Government lawyers who sought to legitimize torture are criticized by many legal scholars. One says they should face "professional sanctions", which could mean disbarment. I hope so.
The UN resolution that authorized the occupation of Iraq extended the immunity of Bush forces soldiers from war crimes prosecution--especially sad given the crimes they have committed.
More recently I've heard that Bush want the Iraqi interim government to extend this immunity to contractors as well. Given that the Justice Department doesn't even bother asking for FBI investigations of crimes against humanity committed by contract torturers, this would mean they can get away with murder.
One good point in the UN resolution is that the interim government cannot make binding decisions that it would impose on a subsequent elected government. In that way, at least, the UN resisted handing Bush all of Iraq's oil. However, it remains to be seen whether "democratic elections" are limited to candidates that approve of the occupation, and therefore can't survive except as puppets of Bush.
Kurdish former MPs, who were imprisoned in Turkey for supporting rights for the Kurds, have now been freed--but the decision is not necessarily final.
The G8 summit's fascist security precautions have taught the people of St Simon Island what Bush really means.
This article gives arguments and evidence that the fires in the World Trade Center were not capable of causing the collapse.
I am not knowledgeable enough to judge the validity of these arguments, but if the 9/11 investigation does not consider them carefully, it is bogus.
Nonviolent protests against the annexation wall continue, but Israeli forces are using new chemical weapons that knock people out.
Ken Okeefe, a nonviolent peace activist, was arrested trying to enter Gaza to discuss peace campaigns with Palestinians.
If Israel would like Palestinians to stop using violence, it should stop crushing nonviolent resistance with force.
Noam Chomsky on Reagan's Legacy: Bush Has Resurrected "The Most Extremist, Arrogant, Violent and Dangerous Elements" of Reagan's White House.
The Australian government paid no attention as Jack Roche repeatedly offered to become an informer in Al Qa'ida. After the 9/11 attacks, they started listening, but only to punish him--not to accept his help in catching anyone else.
This was stupid, since anyone would have to be crazy to try to inform on Al Qa'ida now. Worse, it was unjust, since Roche did not commit any acts of terrorism and mainly tried to prevent them.
Women with drug problems or mental problems often end up in prison, which has the effect of causing suffering, but does not solve the problem. This article describes the UK, but I am pretty sure it is true in the US as well.
Sibel Edmonds, gagged FBI translator, says that there is an underground organization that infiltrates the FBI, which her superiors apparently know about and do not care to investigate.
In and around Britain, species are moving north at up to 50km/year. Some are moving towards eventual extinction at the northern end of the island.
Ronald Reagan launched the modern period of corporate rule. Here's a list of his harmful achievements, some of which I did not know about, and some I did not know he did.
Behind the smokescreen: tightening grip over the West Bank.
Bush has a pattern of talking about how much he supports something--then cutting its budget. This includes soldiers and veterans.
However, one statement in that article is a fundamental mistake. Budgets are the guts of government. "Who benefits?" and "who pays?" are the only serious questions.
Politics deals with others far more important than those two. Who is killed, and is it justified? What freedom do you have? Those are more important than "Who pays".
More of Reagan's casty career.
But the worst thing Reagan did was to sell America and the world a lie: that giving more power and a bigger share of society's production to the rich would increase growth and make everyone better off. "It's counterintuitive, but economics proves it's true", said Reaganomics.
Well, we tried it, and found that it was indeed voodoo economics. Reagan's predictions were Baloney. Reaganomics did lead to growth, but the rich kept all the increase for themselves, so there was no benefit for anyone else. Most Americans were no better off in the 90s than in 1980, and the poorest 20% became poorer. I have not seen figures lately, but I am sure that now it is even worse.
Bush administration arguments for the legitimacy of torture contradict Bush administration arguments in Supreme Court cases.
Hemp activists overcame the dirty tricks of the OSU administration to hold the largest Hemp Fest ever.
A phony abortion clinic, whose practice is to string women along till it is too late for them to get abortions, has been sued on behalf of its victims.
David Kay called Tony Blair "delusional" for continuing to pretend that Saddam's fictitious weapons of mass distruction will be found.
I disagree--I think Bliar is just an extremely stubborn liar. He figures that as long as he never admits doing anything wrong, he may get lucky and never get blamed for what he has done.
Pentagon Report Set Framework For Use of Torture
The RIAA wants your fingerprints.
The only response is--DRM is theft!
MIT police arrested an activist who was handing out leaflets on the street to people on their way to graduation.
Merely arresting one person, and forcing three others to stop leafletting, is small compared with other police outrages. It is noteworthy because it was carried out by a university and because there was not even a shred of an excuse.
Foreign nurses and doctors in Libya have been sentenced to death for maliciously infecting children with HIV. An independent report said that the infections were the result of careless medical techniques.
There was no specific evidence against these accused except confessions that were tortured out of them. When the US criticized the use of torture, Libya responded, "Who are you to talk?"
The Bush regime published detailed accusations against Jose Padilla. If these accusations are true, they would be grounds to put him on trial. However, merely saying so is not grounds to imprison him without trial.
Without a trial we have no basis to assume these accusations are any more justified than the ones against Brandon Mayberry--and we know that the government will stick to false charges for years, merely to avoid admitting a mistake.
The Bush forces made a truce with al Sadr's forces, and agreed that
What the "war
on terror" really means.
The already rather conservative public radio and TV in the US are
under direct pressure from Bush
to become more conservative.
Israelis and Palestinians are now
protesting the wall in A-ram, effectively a suburb of Jerusalem
that will be cut off from it.
A review of the
career of Ronald Reagan.
How Reagan's campaign dealt with Iran,
to prevent President Carter from bringing back the hostages.
For this, and for later selling missiles to terrorists who were
kidnaping Americans, Reagan should have been tried for treason.
However, I won't go so far as to say "good riddance" because he has
died. I prefer to say, as Chicago Mayoral Candidate Washington said
of former Chicago Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad
he's gone." I just wish Reagan's policies were gone too.
When Reagan announced the doctor had told him he it he would be awake
and alert during his operation, I immediately thought of the old joke:
"Doc, will I be able to play the piano after this operation?"
Searing Uncertainty for
Iraqis Missing Loved Ones.
The ACLU is
suing to challenge the USA PAT RIOT act, specifically its
provisions for secret collection of information about individuals
without even a court order. The Bush regime tried to use the PAT RIOT
act to keep the case secretx.
Dubya's general policy is that the public should be kept out of all
important political decisions--the exact opposite of the spirit
of democracy.
The United Nations' top human rights official said that mistreatment
of prisoners by the Bush forces soldiers
could amount to war crimes.
However, if we evaluate the Bush regime by the standards of the
Nuremberg trials, it goes
further than that.
Granada is still holding political prisoners captured in the US
invasion of Granada, and given unfair trials paid for by the US
government.
This was before the US government got the idea of imprisoning
people with no trial.
Gerry Adams, now a member of the UK parliament, describes how he was
beaten and threatened, by police and soldiers, when he was arrested in
the 70s-- as part
of a systematic practice, surely authorized from above.
There were real terrorists and murderers in the IRA, and not all of
them were secretly working for the British government. However, this
cannot excuse a descent into torture.
I have never supported independence for Northern Ireland, which would
probably lead to making it part of the Irish Repbublic. I support the
majority there who do not want to be under the power of a government
that almost completely prohibits divorce and abortion. However, I do
not think the question of supporting or opposing the IRA's goals is
relevant to the question at hand.
The proposed UN resolution would call for the Bush forces to exit Iraq
by 2006. However, Iraqis want them
to leave now.
Bush says no one should "bet against" freedom in Iraq. That's because
he doesn't want you to make a bet you might win. The chances for
freedom in Iraq are small if the Bush forces leave, and zero while
they remain.
The FBI is
continuing to push a criminal case against art professor Steve
Kurtz, and has issued subpoenas to several other artist-dissidents
that work with him.
This could be a deliberate campaign to crush dissidents, and never mind
distorting the facts. The Bush administration has done that before
(look at the cases against Greenpeace and the animal rights
webmasters).
This could also be a mere mistake, followed by culpable unwillingness
to admit making a mistake. That behavior pattern is common among
governments, but the Bush regime takes it further than most.
The Prime Minister of Turkey (a long-time ally of Israel) has accused Israel
of practicing state-sponsored terrorism, equating the murder
practices of Israelis with those of Palestinians.
At the same time, he has clearly rejecting antisemitism,
which will make it harder for those who try to misrepresent
criticism of Israeli policies as antisemitism.
15 years after the massacres at Tien An Men square,
repression in China is becoming stricter, despite economic growth.
Businessmen looking for an excuse to avoid trade sanctions and do
business with a nasty regime like to argue that foreign trade brings freedom.
Clearly this cannot be relied on. China's economic growth
is due in no small measure to the fact that the US government has
ceased to pressure China on human rights. Since Clinton, the US
government's priority in dealing with China has nothing to do with
human rights; it is copyright enforcement, which mainly means more
income for a few corporations.
"Tien An Men" means gate of heavenly peace. Although the name is much
older than the massacre, it has become in effect a lie worthy of Bush himself.
To avoid repeating the lie, we can call it "Sha Xuesheng
Men", which means kill-students (The "x" is pronounced like
English sh, except with the tip of the tongue parallel to the top of
the mouth. The "sh" is pronounced like English sh, but with the
tongue curled a little back in the mouth.)
The
CIA's KUBARK interrogation manual--obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act.
The Bush campaign is trying to involve churches,
violating election laws and separation of church and state.
British American Tobacco is accused of planning to add sweet additives
to cigarettes as a
scheme to get children to smoke.
Whether or not these sweet additives would really increase smoking,
this shows how closely we need to keep watching the tobacco companies.
How the Bush administration persistently imposed its torture policies,
against objections at various levels.
A Parable for
Understanding 9/11
The World Bank supports oil development, supposedly to reduce poverty,
but a new study reports that the benefit
mainly goes to Halliburton.
Mexican police arrested protestors at a summit in Guadalajara, then beat
some of them, stripping others nude.
I wonder if the Mexican police learned some of these techniques from
Bush at the summit.
Bushido: the way
of the armchair warrior.
4 of Bush's Iraqi prison administrators have backgrounds of abusing
prisoners in their careers in state prisons in the US.
The abuse of prisoners in state prisons is no more a matter of a few
"bad apples" than the abuse of prisoners in Iraq. It results from the
general climate of "make them miserable, but never, ever help them"
that has nearly eliminated rehabilitation programs in prisons in the
US.
A Palestinian woman who was imprisoned in Israel says that
women prisoners are often raped, and photographs are used to
blackmail them afterards. (They could be killed by their families for
having been raped.)
When the Bush forces rape prisoners in Iraq, they are simply following
their teacher's example.
I've seen reports claiming that the photographs of men who were forced
to play kinky sex scenes are also meant for blackmailing them later.
The aspect of Arab culture that condemns women who have been raped (or
had love affairs) is entirely unforgiveable. Now this injustice makes
Arabs vulnerable to rape-blackmail tactics. I hope Iraqis will learn
to reject this injustice in their hearts, because they can no longer
afford the vulnerability.
Be that as it may, the facility of blackmailing Arab rape victims is
hardly an excuse for raping them.
The government of Ireland accepted
various corporations as "sponsors" for its term as president of
the European Union. They might as well hang out a sign, "Government
for sale to the highest bidder".
One of these sponsors was Microsoft. People suspect the Irish
government's attempt to ram through software idea patents without a
vote represents what Microsoft purchased with its money.
The
Marijuana Policy Project won a court ruling overturning the law
that banned federally supported transit systems from running paid
advertisements for legalization of marijuana.
After Arthur Andersen gave money to the Bush campaign, Bush let the
company move to Bermuda to avoid US taxes, and now gave
it a big contract.
The Iraqi governing council forced Bremer and Bush to accept a
president who has
criticized the Bush forces. He has asked the UN to give the Iraqi
government real sovereignty.
However, full sovereignty for the Iraqi government while Iraq is
occupied by the Bush forces is a recipe for Bush and Cheney to impose
"irrevocable" privatization deals, in effect stealing from Iraq for
the benefit of Halliburton etc. The Iraqi government should be a
caretaker, all of whose actions can be revoked by a government elected
after the end of the occupation.
When civilians in Iraq torture prisoners, the Justice Department is
supposed to tell the FBI to investigate.
But it has not done so--not even once.
Refuting the arguments for torture.
Robert Fisk: The
re-writing of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed.
Global warming is
causing rapid changes in the Arctic, affecting plants, animals and
people.
The Sudanese government continues
to support a campaign of violence against non-Muslims.
How did we get torture in Guantanamo? In October 2002, General Baccus,
who was in charge, was apparently
removed for being "too nice" to the prisoners. He was
scrupulously observing the requirements of the Geneva Convention.
Here's the article referred to, which criticized General Baccus for
being "too nice".
Note also how that article asserts that prisoners are there because of "actions"
of theirs--true perhaps for some, but false as we know in many cases.
The
A-to-Z of lies about Iraq.
The US major media are
applying a pronounced double standard to Bush and Kerry.
This isn't the first time--we saw it in action against Clinton too.
I find it peculiar that they should bother to do this against Kerry,
who is so close to Bush on most political issues (other than those
of right-wing Christian fundamentalist bigotry). It can't be a matter
of corporate domination, since both candidates support that. It could
be a matter of making sure their reporters are invited to White House
press conferences, but while I believe they would be nice to Bush for
that, I don't see why they would attack Kerry over that.
Can anyone figure out the mechanism behind this?
The Bush forces arrested an entire Iraqi town--well, only the males--
then came
back to destroy houses, as collective punishment.
Monsanto won part of its case in Canada against farmer Percy
Schmeiser, whose crop was polluted by Monsanto's artificial genes. But
this part may be enough for Monsanto's legal squad to terrorize
family farmers. Schmeiser doesn't have to pay damages, but the
seed lines he has saved for 50 years are ruined--and so is his
business.
Retired Staff Sargent Massey
talks about killing Iraqi civilians, including fleeing refugees and
peaceful protestors. He asks other soldiers who have retired from
the Bush forces to speak up and acknowledge what they all participated
in, so they can begin to heal, and so they can inform the public in
the US.
Too bad Colin Powell didn't do this after his Vietnam experience.
A US soldier says he was beaten in Guantanamo while playing prisoner
in a training session. He was
permanently injured and discharged as a result.
An added cruelty of imprisonment in the US: making the prisoners
pay for their loss of freedom.
Measures like these are a response to the high cost of imprisoning so
many Americans (a larger fraction of the population than in any other
country). Instead of making prisons cheaper to run, or squeezing money
out of prisoners' families. The solution is to stop imprisoning
people for unjust reasons--as in the War on Drugs and the War on
Copying.
Reeling from digital photos of torture activities, the Pentagon is trying
to stop soldiers from...having digital cameras.
Mohammad Mahjoub, who fled Egypt to Canada, explained how
his captors in Egypt tortured him.
Mahjoub was arrested in Canada in 2000 based on secret evidence and
has been imprisoned for four years without charges. Now Canada seeks
to deport him to Egypt, presumably so he will be tortured again.
At least in Canada he is getting a court hearing before he is deported.
Bush would send him there without a hearing, and call it "rendition".
British reporter Tara Sutton, after several visits to Fallujah,
reports on how the Bush forces built
up the hatred that spilled forth on March 31--and their
indiscriminate bombardment of civilians afterwards.
US troops were given permission to mistreat Afghan prisoners.
War Crimes: Was Afghanistan Worse?
The Bush forces are investigating reports that
soldiers have stolen from Iraqi civilians
It is proper to investigate, but theft by patrolling soldiers seems to
be a standard practice, and hardly ever will there be any evidence
except the testimony of the civilians in question. The word of a few
Iraqis will surely not be enough to convict a soldier.
The only way to prevent such theft was with a different attitude,
starting from the commanders and going all the way down.
In total,
there are now 91 investigations into "misconduct" of varying
degrees. However, unless these investigations and subsequent trials
are independent, they will tend to whitewash the offenses.
degrees. question.
A court in Israel, before the reintroduction of torture for the
current intifadah, said: "The methods of
interrogation which are employed in any given regime are a faithful
mirror of the character of the entire regime."
Penology also offers
lessons about US torture practices.
Australian Mamdouh Habib was tortured in Guantanamo
prison for three months, according to his former cellmate.
How did soldiers in Guantanamo learn torture? A US soldier says he
was beaten in Guantanamo while playing prisoner in a training session.
He was permanently injured and discharged as a result.
Uri Avnery: The strange creature named the Busharon is in serious trouble.
Amnesty International
accuses Israel of war crimes.
Scientific polls show that
most Iraqis want the Bush forces to leave immediately, but most US
journalists pretend it isn't so.
AP counts 1,361
Iraqis killed during April by the Bush forces.
One Bush forces helicopter pilot made a video of shooting a
wounded Iraqi.
Human rights groups report that Israel imprisons
and abuses Palestinian youths.
Evidence that the Bush
forces tortured Asad Abdul Kareem Abdul Jaleel to death.
Manadel al-Jamadi was killed, then his body was kept for 3 months,
making an autopsy impossible. (This is a standard cover-up practice.)
His family was apparently
never told of his death.
Sadiq Zoman was merely
tortured into a permanent coma.
Prisoners released from Abu Ghraib prison report they were
beaten, injured, and saw another prisoner killed.
Cameraman Badraddin Baz survived two months of torture to
report.
The Bush forces also moved prisoners around so as to
hide them from the International Red Cross. (The practice of
moving prisoners for ulterior reasons is also reported in the US
federal prison system.)
"The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that's a good
thing."
Clinton and Bush have allowed companies to ignore a law
limiting concentration of ownership in oil leasing. They have also
found ways to get around the law and make a mockery of it.
But when a company wants a law enforced, then our guardians of public
order become more energetic. (See the recent note about charging the
operators of an animal rights web site as "terrorists".)
A former CIA analyst urges Americans to be skeptical of
warnings of terrorist attacks based on so-called "credible
intelligence".
The torture practices used on prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba,
etc., were the result of CIA research which the CIA taught
to police and military in various undemocratic governments around the
world.
Let's not forget that many prisoners have been tortured
physically--beaten, raped, and even murdered.
Sibel Edmonds, the FBI whistleblower that Ashcroft has gagged, says the
current 9/11 investigation is inadequate. People tied to the 9/11
attacks were allowed to leave the US months after the attacks, while
hundreds of people arrested for hardly any reason languished in prison
without lawyers.
I have to wonder if the arrests of so many suspects in late 2001
were meant only as a distraction.
Opponents Predict Defeat for
CAFTA. Let's hope so!
The Bush forces reached a deal
with al Sadr; both to withdraw from Najaf.
This sudden reasonableness on the part of Bush is a step in the right
direction--a step towards ending the occupation of Iraq--but it
probably intended as a way to avoid taking any further steps.
Reducing the level of oppression in Iraq to the level as of February
will not make the occupation any more legitimate than it was in February.
Later news says that skirmishes in Kufa, near Najaf, are making it
uncertain that the deal will be carried out.
Bush has privatized
the data base of US government contracts, making it secret. This
facilitates corruption.
The Freedom of Information Act must be amended to include
all data maintained by companies on behalf of the government.
We must establish a principle that how a data base is maintained
has no effect on the public's right of access to it.
Enron traders
bragged about deception, and about "stealing" from California.
Using mercenaries to do soldiers' jobs not only hide casualties
from public view. It also encourages corruption and makes logistics
unreliable. If the US ever has a legitimate reason to fight a war,
that will hurt.
They also indirectly induce professional soldiers to leave the army,
cutting into its ranks. Of course, there is a plan for solving this
problem: the draft.
The activists that McDonald's sued for libel in the UK are now
taking the UK's libel laws to court.
Thousands of Italian
doctors were bribed by Glaxo to prescribe its products.
This is one example of a much broader web of big pharma
corruption which reaches into medical journals and scientific
research.
For almost 4 decades, Colin Powell
has made a career of killing civilians in wartime, and covering it
up. It started in Vietnam. Later he was involved in covering up
Reagan's arms sales to Iranian terrorists--and in arming Iraq at the
same time (while the two countries were at war).
Wasserman: Will
Bush Become America's Pinochet?
The Boston subways
plan to check ID of some passengers--supposedly to
as a security measure, but I suspect it is only effective for making
people feel watched. The article does not say what they will do to
passengers who do not have identification, but it makes me feel like
leaving mine behind.
Remember the hardship and fear caused by the forced cancellation of
various transatlantic flights last December, based on supposed
intelligence reports of a terrorist threat?
This article reports that Ridge already knew on December 23 that these
reports were false, but insisted on the cancellations anyway.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a government honest enough that we
could trust it when it warns us?
Israeli tanks
killed peaceful protestors in Gaza a week ago. Israel
claims that the massacred protestors were armed and that they were
killed by warning shots. However, independent reports say this is
untrue.
The Bush forces are
taking hostages in Iraq: arresting relatives
of the people they really want to capture.
Remember how angry we were when Arabs were taking Americans hostage,
and how we condemned that? It is just as wrong when Americans do it.
A witness who told about torture in Abu Ghraib prison is being
punished for telling.
It's very bad when grandma marries a crook, but it is even worse when
she divorces the crook.
Albert Einstein published an essay in 1949 which clearly explains the
problems of Capitalism today--except that they have now become more
extreme.
The essay also recognizes the problems of Communism, as it then
existed.
Halliburton is charging the US government lots of money for
driving empty trucks back and forth in Iraq.
If you look at this with a nationalistic perspective, it might look
like cheating the government. But when you recognize that, under the
Bush/Cheney administration, the government's prime purpose is to feed
Halliburton, it is perfectly natural.
There are also accusastions that Halliburton staff
demand kickbacks from subcontractors.
Looked at narrowly, that might be an isolated case of corruption. But
just as Bush set the tone for soldiers around the world to torture
prisoners, Cheney set the tone for staff at Halliburton to cheat.
Specific evidence ties some kinds of torture in Iraq to
orders from certain generals.
When General Miller speaks of "setting the condition", those
vague words refer to specific acts of torture.
Bush was kept up to date about the torture accusations all along,
says Powell. (They started over a year ago.)
There are now 37 investigations of deaths of prisoners. But even when
these investigations conclude "it was murder" the killers get a slap
on the wrist.
Here's a report, attributed to DOD whistleblowers, of a
failed CIA
plan to plant weapons of mass distruction in Iraq, as well as steal
Saddam Hussein's riches.
I would not say I'm convinced this is true. Can anyone send
me more information, or confirmation?
The Bush regime has
arrested animal rights activists
and accused them of "terrorism"--for running a web site.
I do not agree with the animal rights movement; I eat meat, and I
strongly support medical research using animals. But when the
political rights of that movement are threatened, my rights and your
rights are threatened as well. Bush is the enemy of democracy, and he
has
attacked other protestors as well.
An
Israeli revenge raid made hundreds more people homeless in Gaza,
and there is now opposition in the Israeli cabinet.
Bush forces soldiers' testimony about an Iraqi killed during
interrogation, apparently by beating him on the head.
Bush still boasts of giving Iraq "an independent judiciary". But if
these Iraqi judges cannot free the Iraqis arrested as hostages
by the Bush forces,
what good are they?
Al Gore gave a speech holding Dubya directly responsible for the
torture and murder of prisoners in Iraq, for the increased danger of
terrorism due to the occupation of Iraq, for dealing with Chalabi, for
lying to start the war, and for seeking the goal of US domination of
the world.
The only part of the speech I did not like was the part that supports
Kerry. With his military background, I suppose Kerry won't tolerate
torturing prisoners, but he his general policy is to be even more
militaristic than Bush.
I was just in Ireland and picked up the book Stakeknife, which
describes the murderous activities of British Army agents in Northern
Ireland. The information comes from one of the soldiers in the
intelligence unit that ran the agents, who later turned whistleblower.
They had agents at high levels in both the IRA and the unionists, and
on both sides they were involved in killing. There were so many
agents that sometimes killings took place in which all the
participants were government agents. When government agent Nelson in
the UDF chose as his next target government agent Stakeknife in the
IRA, the army recommended another Catholic (this one not politically
active) to kill instead.
The murders took place in the 80s and early 90s, under the Tories, but
the Blair government made these crimes its own by trying to cover them
up. In 2000 a newspaper, the People, started to get at the story; its
editor was given two secret injunctions: one not to publish anything
about the security forces, and the other not to talk about the
injunctions.
Murders or no murders, secret censorship is tyrants' work, and
everyone involved in the issuance of such injunctions should have to
resign. I am not sure whether they would have required Blair's direct
authorization; perhaps people more familiar with the inside of the UK
government could tell me the answer to that.
Some US clothing retail companies are releasing reports about how
their products are made, as part of a campaign to
reduce sweatshop practices.
Was the video of the beheading of Nicholas Berg a fake?
When artist Steve Kurtz's wife died, the FBI arrested Kurtz, and seized
his computers, his equipment, and his wife's dead body as
"bioterrorism supplies".
The Bush/Blair draft UN resolution provides for a perpetual
occupation of Iraq. The supposedly-sovereign Iraqi government will
not be allowed to tell the occupying forces to leave.
This proposal is a recipe for perpetual occupation and resistance.
However, if the new Iraqi government has full sovereignty while the
occupation continues, that creates another danger: that it could make
irrevocable "agreements" with Bush about the oil or privatization,
which (supposedly) a future Iraqi government could not revoke.
Bush hopes that the Iraqi puppet government will help impose US-style
corporate-controlled trade, and the privatization that impoverishes.
Many of the US-imposed trade-restriction agreements require
software idea patents (see softwarepatents.co.uk for why they
are so dangerous to computer use).
Some in Washington are now trying to say that
Iran manipulated Bush into attacking Iraq, through Chalabi.
I don't know whether Chalabi was working with Iran. If he was, then
had the conquest of Iraq gone smoothly, Bush would probably have
excused or even praised those contacts as having helped. As it is,
they are the excuse to make Chalabi a scapegoat.
Chalabi is an opportunist, but the idea that he or anyone manipulated
an unwilling Bush into grabbing Iraq is absurd--like Dennis the Menace
claiming he was manipulated into reaching for the cookie jar. Chalabi
was useful to Bush because he said what Bush wanted to hear.
The pressure for voter-verified paper ballots is increasing in the US.
It looks like Bush has forced Jamaica to recognize the death squad
government of Haiti and expel Aristide
to South Africa. Meanwhile, Bush opposes an international
investigation of what occurred in Haiti.
I've heard that some of the political prisoners in Peru were freed
after they got new trials, but it seems that not all the retrials are
truly independent of the previous kangaroo courts.
Book review:
The New Pearl Harbor
The Bush forces have held a New Zealander prisoner in Iraq for months,
fo r
no known reason, and did not give the NZ government any
information.
The Swedish government violated its own law by arresting two men and
sending them without a trial to Egypt, where they were later tortured.
They were asked to
do this by the Bush regime.
The people of Sweden should remove from office or employment everyone
who participated in carrying this out.
The lies used to excuse and minimize wholesale slaughter in Vietnam
are coming back
today for Iraq.
Bush is pressuring the Caribbean nations with threats of war,
demanding that they
accept the unelected Bush-installed
government of Haiti. But they insist on upholding democracy
even against US pressure.
When Bush speaks of trying to establish democracy in Iraq,
ask why he got rid of it in Haiti.
The Pentagon sticks to its stories about killings in Iraq
regardless
of contrary evidence--whether the victims are famous wedding singers,
or award-winning journalists, or whoever.
The Bush administration made contrary statements about whether
it respects the Geneva Conventions in Iraq, and is trying to
stretch the terms to strip many civilian prisoners of protection.
The lawyer for one of the accused Bush forces soldiers
says that
General Sanchez watched the abuse of prisoners.
How Bush Sr. and the Carlyle group are profiteering from Iraq.
The Iraqi government, to be created on June 30, will give immunity to
the Bush forces for their violence against Iraqis. Bush and the Iraqi
government will pretend that this is because they "invited" the Bush
forces to occupy Iraq.
I don't think many Iraqis will be fooled.
More facts emerge about the attack on the
wedding party, as the Bush forces continue to insist they were
attacking the resistance, but it looks like their description of the
attack is entirely untrue.
However, there are conflicting statements about whether the people at
the party fired into the air for celebration.
Dubya's lawyers warned of
possible war crimes prosecutions if he went ahead with some of his
plans for how to treat prisoners. His approach to the problem was to
make a "declaration" that the rules didn't apply to Taliban and Al
Qa'ida prisoners.
Such prosecutions should still be possible--because Dubya's saying the
rules don't apply doesn't make it so. The Nuremberg trials established
the principle that "I was following orders" is not a defense. "I was
following my own decision" is surely not a defense.
But this time, let's improve on Nuremberg by not using the death
penalty. Imprisoning Dubya for life will teach the world a more
constructive lesson than executing him.
Abuse of prisoners and killing of civilians are not the only sort of
war crime. Nazi leaders were also charged and convicted in Nuremberg
with the crime of aggressive war. Bush appears to be guilty of this
in Iraq, and probably in Haiti as well.
Diebold plans to move beyond eliminating paper ballots, and
eliminate paper voter rolls. So there will be nothing except a
computer to determine who's eligible to vote, count how many people
voted, etc.
Some selected Iraqi prisoners are being kept in small cells that the
International Red Cross calls inhumane.
This is being done under a special command that doesn't report to the
generals in control of the Bush forces in Iraq. This shows that the
abuse of prisoners is too broad to be their responsibility alone.
Israeli troops have started a plan to
demolish hundreds of houses in
Rafah, while making inconsistent statements about the plan.
We know that junk food companies promote bad and even specifically
dangerous eating habits with their ads. But this example
really wins the prize.
A new UN treaty
bans the use of a dozen long-lasting toxic chemicals,
but it will be a long time before the quantities already in the
environment cease to endanger the health of people and animals.
Torturing prisoners isn't limited to the US.
Farhat Kaya, a human rights campaigner in Turkey,
was arrested for providing legal help to those who oppose a new pipeline,
and
tortured afterwards.
He was
previously imprisoned simply for speaking of another imprisoned
Kurd, Mr. Ocalan, as "Mr" Ocalan (or rather the equivalent in
Turkish).
Regardless of what one thinks about the former activities of Mr
Ocalan, who led a Kurdish underground insurrection, to imprison
someone for making such a statement is trampling basic human rights.
Powell admits the goal of "handing over sovereignty" is "so it no
longer looks like an occupation".
Will this change anything?
Recently the Bush forces attacked a
wedding party in Iraq and killed 40 people.
I am confident the Bush forces did not intend to kill people in a
wedding party. They are smart enough to recognize that the
consequences can only bad for them.
The Bush forces claim that the party was a group of resistance
fighters and opened fire first. As soon as I read that, I suspected
that people in the party had been firing in the air for celebration.
Maybe a frightened pilot honestly mistook that for enemy action.
Maybe erroneous intelligence reports told the Bush forces there was a
resistance group in that house. Maybe it really is one--most Iraqis
support the resistance more or less, according to recent polls. Pick
any house in Iraq, and it is probably involved in the resistance
somehow.
Clearly this occurrence involved some kind of bad luck, but it is part
of a larger pattern. At that level, this is not a matter of chance,
it is predictable and inevitable. Such things happen every day in an
occupation of a hostile population, which is why the occupation
inevitably makes Iraqis hate the Bush forces. Any puppet government
that depends on the Bush forces to stay in power will be continuing
the occupation, and the resistance will continue until it is
overthrown.
The computers we discard usually end up in poor countries such as
China, where people take them apart to recycle the valuable materials.
Recycling is useful, but with this method it is also poisonous, since
the computer parts release toxic substances into the air and water.
Many countries seem to fail to enforce the treaty that bans export
of hazardous waste. The US didn't even sign it.
The best way to recycle used computers is to install
GNU/Linux on them,
and give them to a poor country to use instead of burn.
The population of Easter Island wiped out the animals and trees that
their lives depended on, and crashed into starvation and war. They
did not look ahead to project the consequences of overusing the
resources they needed.
We could meet a similar fate.
In Russia, the war on drugs is being applied to veterinarians, who
face up to 15 years imprisonment for using the standard anesthetic
which is banned in Russia. What drugs are Russian prosecutors using?
Chalabi used to be a darling of the Bush forces, because
he told them about nonexistent Iraqi weapons which they used
as an excuse for war. But they have had a falling out, and
the Bush troops went to search his house.
It looks like Chalabi will say whatever is convenient in the
circumstances. This is the sort of person that is useful to Bush, and
that Bush discards when he ceases to be useful.
The General Accounting Office says that the Bush administration
illegally produced phony news reports in support of the Bush
medicare bill.
How the Portuguese dictatorship adapted and extended CIA torture methods.
(The CIA torture manual they used was declassified in 1997.)
Some US prisons
boast about how badly they treat prisoners.
Bush's failure to keep track of civilian casualties in Iraq
violates
the Geneva Conventions.
The
Amnesty International Report mentioned.
Specific evidence indicates that the video of Zarqawi and the
beheading of Nicholas Berg was a fake, actually filmed inside the
Bush-controlled Abu Ghraib prison.
There are rumors that Bush and Blair are looking for a way to
get
their troops out of Iraq. However, they are still trying to leave a
puppet government behind, which can't possibly work for long.
Perhaps they hope to prop it up until November so Bush can claim
"success" for the election.
I saw another article today saying that they are planning to give
Iraqi army units--under US command, of course--the option to decline
to fight particular battles, to gain UN approval for the plans. The
fact that this is even under discussion shows that what they are
considering is a puppet government. The UN should not authorize
anything remotely like this.
Starbucks workers in New York have unionized.
They are ill-paid, and overworked to the point where
the job causes physical pain.
Gay marriage has begun in Massachusetts.
Bush has
established a pattern of disregarding any and all
laws, constitutional requirements, and treaties that protect
human rights. Kerry will be tempted to continue this system.
One danger you face from this is that the US could
convince another country to send you to Syria to be tortured.
This is called "rendition". It is
described in this article
(not near the beginning).
Three Iraqi news reporters were
arrested and abused by the Bush forces
in January.
After accusations of abusing prisoners in Afghanistan (some of them to
death), the US Army says it will investigate--but
keep the results of
the investigation secret. The prisons themselves are secret too.
An
estimated 10,000 are held prisoner by the US outside US territory;
prisoners have been brought to Iraq from 21 other countries.
Secret prisons are inexcusable. To keep someone in prison is a
serious matter; the reasons, as well as the way the person is treated,
must stand up to scrutiny. The press must be given access to
check how prisoners are treated.
The claim that letting the press investigate the prisoners' claims
of abuse would be exploiting prisoners is the sort of absurd lie
that Bush is famous for.
Chinese ex-president Jiang Zemin is being sued the US for leading a
campaign of torture and murder. The Bush administration filed a brief
asking for the suit to be dismissed.
I guess leaders who preside over systems of torture and killing have
learned to stick up for each other.
John Negroponte, who is supposed to be US ambassador to the supposed
Iraqi government-to-be, presided over
US support and cooperation for torture by Battalion 316 in
Honduras. This article is based on interviews with victims and
with members of that battalion.
With over 2 million Americans in serving prison sentences, the large
prison population has
effects on society.
Reports of a person who encountered a DOD program to study the organization of peace-leaning US
organizations.
This fits in an interesting way the news that Rumsfeld has been trying
to have the DOD take over intelligence operations from the CIA.
A Newsweek article ties
high officials to torture decisions.
You might get the idea from this article that the Geneva Conventions
apply to only some of the people in a war zone. In fact they cover
everyone; there's no exception for "illegal combatants" (though they
can be charged with the crime of being such, and punished if
convicted). Taliban fighters were part of the army of the government
of Afghanistan, so they were legal combatants.
This article also seems to treat the use of torture by the CIA as
acceptable provided they keep it secret.
A prison manager who oversaw abuse of prisoners as a civilian in the
US was
chosen by Bush to run the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Bush was given
formal advice to consider the Geneva Convention
"obsolete". There is evidence connecting Rumsfeld directly
with torture practices.
Three mothers whose sons were killed by police in the US, having
committed no crimes, are
searching for justice, but finding that
the police tend not to be punished for this.
This is the tip of an iceberg of systematic police mistreatment of
certain racial groups.
Former marine
Staff Sgt Masset reports on the Iraqi civilians he
killed, how he concluded that the war was wrong, and how he was
punished for saying so.
The
use of "civilian" mercenaries as soldiers in Iraq has many
effects. It artificially reduces the military casualties figures by
failing to count these soldiers. It bypasses military laws against
torture and other things. It also raises a few soldiers'
pay--sometimes quite a lot.
There are reports that a
secret Pentagon program, established by
Rumsfeld to carry out torture on a few Al Qa'ida suspects, was in an
act of "stupidity" extended to include lots of Iraqis arrested for
whatever reason.
Extending the program in this way may have been stupid, but let's not
presume that torture is legitimate to use on Al Qa'ida suspects.
The abuse and contempt for lives of the occupied people
seen in Iraq have
precedents in previous US wars.
So do the tendencies not to punish the perpetrators very much,
and to deny the true scope of what has occurred.
A former Guantanamo prisoner
describes how he and others were tortured in an organized, systematic
way He says the staff made videos of everything. These videos
could be proof positive of organized systematic brutality.
Amnesty International lists
specific cases where Bush forces soldiers killed unarmed Iraqis
who were clearly no threat.
Considering how hard it is to get evidence in such cases, there must
be far more cases that could not be documented.
Thousands of people in Rafah are fleeing their homes, expecting
Israel to demolish them.
More information is available at
http://www.btselem.org .
The policy of supporting Israel no matter what it does, adopted by
both Bush and Kerry
makes it impossible for the US to sponsor peace negotiations between
Israel and Palestine.
Guards in the Bush forces set dogs on prisoners, raped them, etc.
Their behavior reflects the general attitude of Bush & Co--the Geneva
conventions are just words, get tough, etc.--which were the motive for
bypassing safeguards formerly established in the US Army to prevent
such things.
US-sponsored torture did not start in Iraq. The
training manuals used in the School of the Americas taught torture to
over 60,000 soldiers from Latin America.
It also taught the technique of taking someone's family members
hostage to put pressure on him or her. That policy too is being used
in Iraq.
In Colombia, the government which receives US funding through "Plan
Colombia" lets unofficial death squads implement a similar policy by
killing the relatives of union organizers
Human Rights Watch says US prisoners in
Afghanistan are being abused.
Even the FBI stays away from CIA interrogations for fear they are
illegal. The British
learned the techniques from North Korean and Chinese "brainwashing"
that they applied to prisoners in the Korean War.
Innocent-sounding labels such as "stress positions" stand for torture
that over time causes permanent physical injury. Other forms of abuse
not named in that story can also cause injury or even death--for
instance, keeping people in small rooms for a long time, or kicking
them, or denying them medical care when they are sick.
It is especially ironic that, while the Bush forces in Iraq were
brutalizing Iraqi prisoners, including people who were arrested for no
reason, Bush has been
bragging over and over that his invasion had saved Iraqis from such
mistreatment.
After battles in Gaza in which Palestinians killed Israeli soldiers,
Israeli forces took revenge on the helpless, by
demolishing 88 buildings and leaving 1000 people homeless.
Torture practices in Iraq my trace back to practices used by the
UK against IRA suspects in the 1970s.
Why all of a sudden are Americans outraged about torture in Iraq,
after ignoring
so many cruelties?
Specific news about Iraqis who were arrested and tortured by the Bush
forces, and one of them killed, was
published in February in London. But America did not pay
attention--perhaps because there were no pictures.
The RIAA doesn't officially have the status of a police force, but its
unofficial
police have learned to respect people's rights as much as real
police.
The U.S.A. P.A.T. R.I.O.T. Act, enacted in folly after the Sepember 11
attacks,
parallels a law enacted after another attack which cut away legal
rights in another country.
Evidence is appearing that one specific Iraqi prisoner was tortured and
killed by the Bush forces. His death certificate was falsified.
The fact that Iraqi pathologists are prohibited from checking what the
Bush forces say is the most significant thing here, because it is a
systematic policy with no other likely purpose but to cover up
torture. Who gave the order for that?
UK police
used a fake "security threat" as an excuse to arrest a peaceful
solitary protestor on a permanent vigil.
He was charged with assaulting an officer, though he was the only one
injured and it seems more likely that the officers attacked him.
Bush is deploying an expensive missile defense system which, as the
Union of Concerned Scientists points out,
is so easy to fool that even North Korea could do it. If the
system leads a US president to believe the US is safe from missile
attacks, it could indirectly do great harm.
I don't object to missile defense in theory, if it can be done
effectively and cheaply. However, looking at the real systems, I
think they make no sense except as ways to funnel taxpayers' money to
certain companies and provide an
excuse to cut social spending.
India used a low-tech electronic vote counting system that
avoids some of the dangers of US computerized voting machines
through the inflexibility of its circuitry.
Rancid from Top to Bottom: Green Lights for
Torture.
A Seattle high school student was questioned for
drawing cartoons criticizing Bush.
The school representatives say they were "concerned about violence".
That is balderdash: a cartoon is not violence, just a depiction of
violence. If they are concerned about violence, they should question
Bush about the Iraqis and Colombians he has killed.
I hope the student speaks up with pride to identify himself.
Pictures of prisoner humiliation published by the Daily Mirror
in London
turn out to have been faked.
The fact that these particular photos were faked does not really
change anything, in my opinion, given that we have plenty other
evidence that the practice of abuse and killing of prisoners in Iraq
is real.
To build democracy in Iraq, how about
listening to what Iraqis want?
A UN tribunal has indicted General Wiranto of Indonesia for war crimes
in the massacres at the end of the Indonesian occupation of East
Timor. Wiranto may
nonetheless be the next president of Indonesia.
Brutality begins at home, as torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq
mirrors common practices in US prisons. The guards and police who
attack helpless prisoners are more often rewarded than punished.