How True Are the True Confessions of the Terror Mastermind? - "An American editor wrote to me, “I am deeply troubled by the reports of Mohammed's confession. It strikes me that it is a tidy resolution to a much larger problem. How convenient that we have all the questions answered in one somewhat disheveled package. Considering that the confession was obtained through torture, and the number of studies that have shown that information obtained in that matter is unreliable (although politically expedient), what have we really learned? Is it overly cynical to think that this administration so desperately needs a win that this is being trotted out? And what of the nefarious Osama Bin Laden? Does this mean that he wasn't involved, if Mohammed was the "mastermind" and orchestrated everything from "A to Z." (By the way, interesting use of the American vernacular -- I wonder who the translator is?).”"
The waterboarded evildoer - "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) customers to waterboarding usually don't last more then 14 seconds before confessing to anything. Salafi-jihadi mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad - or KSM, as he is known in the counterinsurgency netherworld - apparently lasted as long as 150 seconds. KSM's "confession" comes courtesy of a Pentagon that already gave the world Abu Ghraib in Baghdad, Bagram in Kabul, Guantanamo, "extraordinary rendition" and extreme variations of handsomely paid subcontracted torture. According to Human Rights Watch, waterboarding "really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law". Those who believe KSM was not tortured in his more than four years in Pakistan and in Guantanamo may also believe in Spider Man. The CIA, just in case, also kidnapped both of his sons - one is seven, the other is nine. The impeccable timing - although more than four years late - of KSM's "confession" also happens to knock the scandal surrounding US President George W Bush's chief law enforcer and torture apologist, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, off the media cycle." -- This is the world we have created.
Do We Still Have Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Sons? - "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s sons, who would now be 13 and 11, have apparently been incarcerated somewhere in the United States for four years now, and all that time they have been at the tender mercies of the Central Intelligence Agency. Now there may still be some innocents among us who will readily believe that the CIA has been giving them nothing but “the best of care,” but that could hardly include anyone with the imagination to put himself in Mohammed’s place. These determined continued believers in the word of people who have been caught in lies repeatedly might also swallow the assertion that we nabbed these moppets to pump them for vital information, never mind that this kidnapping flies in the face of everything that is legal and decent."
Poll: Fear, anger, stress grip Iraqis - "The optimism that helped sustain Iraqis during the first few years of the war has dissolved into widespread fear, anger and distress amid unrelenting violence, a survey found."
Iraqis see hope drain away - "Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Iraqis describe daily lives that have been torn apart by spiraling violence and a faltering economy. The bursts of optimism reported in a 2004 public-opinion survey taken a year after the invasion and another in 2005 before landmark legislative elections have nearly vanished."
Iraqis: life is getting better - " MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today."
US ready to defend interests in ME for decades: Gates - "The US is “dedicated to strengthening those commitments and defending our interests for the decades to come. And we will do all in our power to protect and defend our homeland,” he said."
Military goes online to stem troop suicide - "Here's a future scene from the Iraq battlefield, circa July 2007: A U.S. soldier battles against the enemy all day long. At night, after returning to base, he's troubled by what he's seen. But he knows better than to speak up. Just outside the view of his fellow soldiers, he logs on to a virtual therapy Web site provided by the military called afterdeployment.org. He knows that if his comrades see him talking with one of the shrinks on base, they would lose trust in him, label him a head case. A medical file soon would contain records of the visit. If he ever wanted a promotion, he'd have to explain the weakness of his mind."
Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts - "More troubling, the officials say, is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover from what some officials privately have called a "death spiral," in which the ever more rapid pace of war-zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of their total gear, wearied troops and left no time to train to fight anything other than the insurgencies now at hand."
Scandal over lawyers moves nearer to Bush - "The scandal over the sacking of eight government lawyers, allegedly for political reasons, moved closer to the White House last night after it was revealed that George W Bush's right-hand man was involved in discussions about the dismissals two years ago."
Crime Blotter:1600 Pennsylvania Ave. - "We are faced with the almost certain fact that the two highest law enforcement officials of the United States are criminals."
Karl Rove Must Go To Prison - "Karl Rove must go to the jail, the pokey, the big house, if you will. No not country-club Republican, I-ripped-off-your-grandma-with-junk-bonds prison where he can join the Dartmouth or Princeton rowing squad and walk by a state-of-the-art outdoor weight-lifting facility his two-seats-on-Southwest ass would never even think about using."
Political video smackdown - "It may be the most stunning and creative attack ad yet for a 2008 presidential candidate -- one experts say could represent a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising."
The Late, Great American Nation - "Under these new provisions, the president can now use the military as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.” According to the new law, Bush doesn’t even have to notify Congress of his intent to use military force against the American people—he just has to notify them once he has done so. The defense budget provision’s vague language leaves the doors wide open for rampant abuse. As writer Jane Smiley noted, “the introduction of these changes amounts, not to an attack on the Congress and the balance of power, but to a particular and concerted attack on the citizens of the nation. Bush is laying the legal groundwork to repeal even the appearance of democracy.” The main reason we do not want the military patrolling our streets is that under martial law, the Bill of Rights becomes null and void. A standing army—something that propelled the early colonists into revolution—strips the American people of any vestige of freedom. Thus, if we were subject to martial law, there would be no rules, no protections, no judicial oversight and no elections. And unless these provisions are repealed, the president’s new power will be set in stone for future administrations to use—and abuse."
If Americans Knew - "What every American needs to know about Israel/Palistine."
Still Love Governments? - "It's truly amazing despite all the crimes committed by governments, people still religiously cling to the idea governments are necessary to protect life, liberty and property. You can even point out governments not only have no duty to protect anyone, but also do a disasterous job at whatever they bother doing. Despite overwhelming evidence government is not only unnecessary, corrupt and a cancer on the world, its victims continue to revere them. Maybe this will help convince them governments are nothing more than gangs of killers, thieves and liars. Show a friend who believes governments are necessary this copy of title 50 of the United States Code, section 1520. This "law" authorizes the "Department of Defense" to conduct chemical and biological warfare experiments on "civilian populations". You'll notice there is nothing in there about about informing the "civilian population" and getting their consent. While the only ones "notified" are "local civilian officials", there is nothing about getting consent first. I seem to remember hearing something about a dictator in the middle east being accused of doing something like this."
State nannies to be sent in to target 'at risk' families - "The state should step in to turn around young lives at the first sign they are becoming blighted by crime, poverty, violence and drug abuse, Mr Blair will say."
AOL introduces location plug-in for IM - "AOL is offering users of its AIM instant messaging service new capabilities to see where people on their buddy lists are physically located."
For the Christian Right, Gay-Hating Is Just the Start - "As the Christian right works hard to make gays and lesbians second-class citizens, society needs to make a stand -- or else the same tactics will soon be used against other "social deviants.""
Lesbian kiss falls flatter than a pancake - "Just one kiss. That’s all it took — to get thrown out of the IHOP in Grandview. ... Two young women sharing a kiss didn’t seem inappropriate to the other couple in the restaurant booth that night, Jackie Smith and the woman with whom she shares her life, Toni Smith. But someone watching the scene was offended."
Adultery Is a Ho-Hum Issue for '08 Candidates - "The era of adultery in politics appears to be over, given that the three top candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have broken their marriage vows."
Monroe was tricked into suicide, says FBI report - "The three-page report suggests the late US attorney-general Robert Kennedy, the movie star’s lover, knew of — and perhaps even participated in — a plan “to induce suicide”. The papers suggest Monroe, 38, who had a history of attention-seeking suicide attempts, was deliberately given the means to fake another one on August 4, 1962, but was left to die."
A380 on trans-Atlantic sales pitch - "It may trail the historic impact of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, but the Spirit of St. Louis also did not have a wingspan wider than a football field or space for more than 500 passengers."
Behavior May Suggest We're Not Only Human - "Over the past two centuries, people have had to disabuse themselves about various ideologies asserting that humans are fundamentally different from other animals. Biologists have shown that our arms and legs and organs have long evolutionary histories. Beliefs about the uniqueness of human behavior might well be the last bastion of our superiority complex, but research by de Waal and many others suggests that even this redoubt may be crumbling." -- Humans, contrary to their egotism, are not superior to the other species on the planet. They share the planet with them.
Quote of the Day
"If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone, ‘America died from a delusion that she has moral leadership.’"
~ Will Rogers
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