Where's the Outrage?

Tags: Al Qaeda, Congress, Terrorism, War on Terror by Neil Aquino
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I’m sorry. I can’t get all whipped up about this. We have heard about top commanders captured before. We have heard about high value targets and the like. Hey, let me know when Mullah Omar is captured. Then I’ll pay more attention.

From NYT:

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials. (more…)

Tags: Afghanistan, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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There is more evidence that we tortured and/or abused prisoners at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan. This is so un-American.

From the BBC:

Bagram has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new detention centre is currently under construction at the camp.

Some of the inmates are forcibly taken there from abroad, especially Pakistanis and at least two Britons.

Since coming to office US President Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and ordered a review of policy on detainees, which is expected to report next month.

But unlike its detainees at the US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention. (more… )

From Human Rights Watch:

# In November 2002, the CIA was reportedly involved in the torture and killing of a detainee in Afghanistan. A CIA case officer at the “Salt Pit,” a secret U.S.-run prison just north of Kabul, ordered guards to “strip naked an uncooperative young Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets,” the Washington Post reported on March 3, after interviewing four government officials familiar with the case. According to the article, Afghan guards “paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision” dragged the prisoner around the concrete floor of the facility, “bruising and scraping his skin,” before placing him in a cell for the night without clothes. An autopsy by a medic listed “hypothermia” as the cause of death, and the man was buried in an “unmarked, unacknowledged cemetery.” A U.S. government official interviewed told the Post: “He just disappeared from the face of the earth.”
# Two detainees were killed in December 2002 at Bagram airbase. These cases were previously reported by Human Rights Watch and were the subject of an exhaustive investigation by the New York Times. According to documents obtained by Human Rights Watch and a criminal investigation file obtained by the Times, two Afghan detainees named Dilawar and Habibullah died at Bagram airbase after being chained to the ceiling and severely beaten by U.S. guards and interrogators. Military intelligence officers knew of the pattern of abuses at the time, but failed to stop them. Although several soldiers were eventually charged with assault—in the wake of continued reporting on the case by Human Rights Watch—no personnel have been charged with homicide. In the months after the deaths, the U.S. military continued to tell journalists that the detainees had died of natural causes. (more… )

Tags: Afghanistan, Torture, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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I haven’t done a news roundup in a while. I’ve been terribly busy. Plus the computer that I usually blog on has been sick. Now that it has a new CPU I’m up and running.

• Ursula Burns has been named the new CEO of Xerox. She is the first black female to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Congratulations to her.
• Crooks and Liars and Glenn Greenwald are just a few of the progressive bloggers that were disturbed by Barack Obama’s preemptive detention program which was unveiled yesterday. I’m not sure that Barack Obama is going as far as embracing Bush’s policies, but he is getting a little too close for my taste. This is Majority Report stuff.  I think it is important for us to push back. We need to push President Obama to the left.

• The swine flu is not dead. There are now over 6,000 cases in the US and nine deaths.  I think we will see a large outbreak during the winter months. We need to pay attention what is going on down in the Southern Hemisphere because it is the winter months down there now. The United States, trying to be preemptive, is investing $1 billion in immediate production and testing of a N1H1 vaccine.
• The “Four Terrorists Who Weren’t.” This sounds so much like the guys in Miami or the guys that wanted to attack Fort Dix. I’m not impressed.
• ESPN’s Jim Rome has never been accused of being a genius… or even tactful. He was talking with special guest Jay Mohr when Mohr went off on a tangent basically accusing Michele Obama, the First Lady, of being butch. The statement was unnecessary, over the top and uncalled for.  It wasn’t funny and, frankly, it was wrong.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Race, Rachel Maddow Show, Terrorism, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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I’m not sure how many of you are old enough to remember that movie, Which Way Is Up? starring Richard Pryor. It was not one of Richard Pryor’s funniest movies. He played Leroy Jones,a confused and naïve character who was pulled in many different directions. When I look at President Barack Obama, I see some similarities. It’s not every month or every week, but it is every single day that the Obama administration is putting out a new fire and trying to lay the groundwork to make sure that fire does not happen again. From Iraq to Afghanistan, from Wall Street to Detroit, from toxic assets to Guantánamo Bay, Barack Obama has been pushing his agenda.

This brings me to an article I saw on the Washington Post website over the weekend entitled, “Detainees Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots.” Do you remember Abu Zubaydah? He was the first big “high-value target” that the Bush administration captured. April 9, 2002, President Bush said, “The other day we hauled in a guy named at Abu Zubaydah. He’s one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States. He’s not plotting and planning anymore. He’s where he belongs.”

This Washington Post article points out the problems that the Bush administration has left for President Barack Obama. Abu Zubaydah was once characterized by President Bush as the “chief of operations” for all of Al Qaeda. Unfortunately for us, that wasn’t true. As a matter of fact, it is now believed that he really wasn’t an Al Qaeda member at all, but an associate. According to Ron Suskind’s book, “The 1% Doctrine,” Zubaydah was a guy who suffered a head injury at a relatively young age. He kept a diary, which was found by the CIA. The diary clearly shows that the “Al Qaeda operative” was insane. He truly had a split personality. His diary was written in two, if not three, distinct voices. It is now believed that Al Qaeda used him as a kind of travel agent because he was clearly expendable.

Think back to 2002 and 2003 Remember the terror alert that Al Qaeda was going to attack the malls? This information came as a result of the torture of Abu Zubaydah. After a little bit more wate-rboarding, we learned that Al Qaeda was going to attack banks in the financial district. The terror level went up yet again. We did not get one bit of actionable intelligence from Abu Zubaydah. It could be argued that we got some information about how Al Qaeda worked but no information on active plans.

So what do you do with an Al Qaeda operative (who isn’t really an Al Qaeda operative) who has been tortured? This is the conundrum that the Obama administration faces. Abu Zubaydah has been in American custody for over seven years. He was born in Saudi Arabia. His father was a Palestinian. He was captured in Pakistan. Do you send him overseas? To whom?

What is fair? How do you keep America safe? What do you do with the other approximately 245 detainees? My head is spinning and this is just one of Barack Obama’s thousand or so problems. Do you know which way is up?

Tags: Al Qaeda, Legal, Torture, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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John King: Do you believe the president of the United States has made Americans less safe?

Former VP Cheney: I do. I believe that those programs were absolutely essential to the success that we enjoyed. To be able to collect the intelligence that led us to defeat all further attempts at attacks against the United States since 9/11.

I have so many questions. Let’s start with the obvious. Why is anybody interviewing former VP Dick Cheney? Was Cheney right about anything in the last eight years? Former VP Cheney has a long history of over-the-top rhetoric based on little or no evidence. Yet CNN thinks that he is a great person interview about how Pres. Barack Obama is doing. I’ve just got to ask the question again. Why interview Cheney? He is very predictable. We all know that he is going to say that Obama is not doing enough. Remember that former VP Cheney said, “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” I would reiterate that VP Cheney spoke in absolutes. He was wrong then. He is now speaking in absolutes. Why is he not wrong again?

Everyone seems to want to forget about the anthrax attack on United States. This occurred after 9/11. As far as I know, there have been no arrests. One man was detained and his life was ruined. He was cleared from suspicion and we had to pay for slandering his name. The investigation has been focused on a scientist named Bruce Ivins. He was a peculiar man who committed suicide but was never charged with the anthrax attacks. So, again, we have nobody in jail for these anthrax attacks. Yet Cheney is talking about keeping us safe.

Finally, in March of 2000, Pres. Bill Clinton could’ve easily gone on CNN and stated that the Bush administration was not focused on Al Qaeda. President Clinton could have said that his administration has kept us safe since the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center. I wonder how many Republicans would’ve gone berserk if President Clinton had called them out on their lack of preparation and their lack of focus on Al Qaeda.

Tags: Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Terrorism, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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The Economist magazine recently asked if President George W. Bush might face some type of international war crimes trial after he leaves office. A retired American general is quoted as saying that the Bush administration is likely guilty of war crimes for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

You might think that lying his way into a tragic war might have already merited President Bush a charge of treason. Still, there may be an outside chance of justice with evolving standards of international law. If we can’t get justice by Bush being apprehended while abroad and placed in a cell, at least we should see the prospect of formal charges and a measure of circumspection by Bush as to where he travels after his Presidency.

On a similar note, human rights activists in France and Germany have begun to seek human rights charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield. The linked article explains this more specifically.

Can a person in power get away with anything at all? One hopes that after such a brutal 20th-century, this new century will bring better standards of global justice.

Please click here for a review of “The Dark Side–The Inside Story Of How The War On Terror Turned Into A War On American Ideals” by Jane Mayer. This book discusses the Bush response of torture and breaches of American civil liberties as part of the so-called “War on Terror.”

Tags: Books, Torture, War on Terror by Neil Aquino
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It has been almost 2 weeks ago when Michael Mukasey was testifying in the Senate and Senator Whitehouse asked him a direct question. Is Waterboarding (simulated drowning) torture? He couldn’t or wouldn’t directly answer the question. I wrote that he should be rejected right then. There was nothing else that needed to be considered. So, we have gotten bogged down in the exact definition of waterboarding. I heard on the Diane Rehm show some legal expert split the finest of hairs. He said something like if water actually gets into the lungs then that’s torture. If it doesn’t then it isn’t. What? How could anyone possibly say that simulated drowning isn’t torture (besides mind-numbing neocons)?

Several blogs discuss waterboarding and this horrors  – here and here.   Malcolm Nance, a 20 year veteran of counter- intelligence, has written this great article on waterboarding.

I’ll link to an earlier video in which waterboarding is demonstrated.

————

From WaPo:

Democratic support for attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey dwindled further yesterday over his refusal to comment on the legality of a harsh CIA interrogation technique, setting the stage for an unexpectedly close vote next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) announced that they will join Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) in voting against Mukasey on the Judiciary panel, after the nominee said in a four-page letter to Senate Democrats that he does not know whether a type of simulated drowning called waterboarding constitutes illegal torture under U.S. law. (more…)

Mukasey in trouble [ 1:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Torture, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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No duh. The National Intelligence Estimate told us this a while ago. The British have figured out that we need to change direction or lose the War on Terror. I’m wondering if President Bush will read this report.

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From Yahoo.com:

Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the “war on terror” is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.

A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a “fundamental re-think is required” if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.

“If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut,” said Paul Rogers, the report’s author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England. (more…)

Do we torture? [ 1:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: National Intelligence Estimate, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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William Kristol is one of the worst of the worst.  He has never really faced the reality of Iraq.  He is one of the architects.  He was one of the loudest voices.  He sees nothing but sunshine over there.  What else could he see?  If he saws death and destruction then he might have to admit that it was all his fault.

Jon Stewart uses an interesting tactic.  Jon wonders why anyone who disagrees with the war is labeled as un-American or a cut and runner.

TDS - William "The Blood" Kristol [ 7:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, The Daily Show, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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When you look at the craziness that is Iraq and in spite of the constant pronouncements of neocons, you have to come to the conclusion that Iraq is a mess. Over 300 people were killed or injured in another suicide bomb. Quelling an insurgency will take time. There are no shortcuts. Knowing that the Bush administration is committed to this war and without a 2/3′s vote in the Senate we are stuck. Period. So, how do we manage the Army and Marine Corp without breaking them? We need more people. We need to increase the size of both.

I don’t have an answer. I think that a draft will make more of the neocons (Romney) reconsider their position. Even if we start a draft tomorrow there won’t be any relief for our men and women in the field for some time. In my book, we need to start a pull out. We won’t be able to do that with a Republican president in the White House. So, the soonest that we could start a pull out will be January of 2009. That’s the reality as I see it.

Countdown - Draft [ 5:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Countdown, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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Max Blumenthal visits the College Republicans. It is amazing that none of the ones that were filmed said anything original. All of these “healthy” pro-war Republicans, found all kinds of excuses of why they couldn’t or wouldn’t enlist. Their basic motto – I’m a Patriot. I support the war. I’m too important to risk my life on some war.

Chickenhawks [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Party Politics, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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Well, I hate this format. Like there are 2 sides to this conflict. Newt Gingrich is a smart but awful man. He is a master of deception. New said -

“But notice, there are two things there. First of all, even if you accept that this is a civil war, people have won civil wars. I devoted three novels about winning the American Civil War. And the fact is, civil wars are hard. But we also—I just did a novel on Pearl Harbor and the Second World War. The Second World War was hard. Guadalcanal was hard. If we’d had today’s Congress during Guadalcanal, the number of people who had said beating the Japanese is too hard, let’s find a negotiated peace, would have been amazing.”

Horse manure. We were attacked by the Japanese. We weren’t attacked by Iraq. So, there is no basis for the comparison but Newt persists. He sets up his illogical comparison by clearly stating that he is has written 3 historical novels. So, the viewer will assume that he is an expert. Therefore, his comparison must be right because he is an expert. That’s classic Newt Gingrich.

The bottom-line is that it doesn’t matter whether Iraq is easy or hard. From a moral standpoint we shouldn’t be there. The other thing is that everyone talks about an all or nothing strategy. In fact we have neither. We aren’t all in now. If we were all in there would be a draft. Americans would be asked to make sacrifices. Our number 1 priority would be renewing equipment and getting the best equipment to the troops. We aren’t doing that. The other side is talking about a complete withdrawal. That’s not realistic either. We will have to keep some forces in the area that can respond to crisis situations.

I’ll have video of what can be loosely called a debate.

MTP - Dodd and Gingrich [ 8:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Sunday Morning Shows, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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You can take this for what it is worth but NBC reported yesterday that 11 GOP congressmen meet with Bush and told him that there needs to be change in Iraq.  Well, look at the video and you make your own decision.

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From WaPo:

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

The meeting, which ran for an hour and a half Tuesday afternoon, was disclosed by participants yesterday as the House prepared to vote this evening on a spending bill that could cut funding for the Iraq war as early as July. GOP moderates told Bush they would stay united against the latest effort by House Democrats to end U.S. involvement in the war. Even Senate Democrats called the House measure unrealistic.  (more…)

Nightly News - Bush losing GOP support [ 2:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army’s Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers — a plot the FBI says was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD.

The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.

“Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets,” said FBI agent J.P. Weiss. (more…)

Terrorists in NJ? [ 4:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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As we all know Al Qaeda was not in Iraq in any significant numbers before we arrived. Now, well, let’s say, “mission not accomplished.” Al Qaeda is fighting with our militias in Iraq for control.

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From CNN.com:

Pulling U.S. forces from Iraq could trigger catastrophe, CNN analysts and other observers warn, affecting not just Iraq but its neighbors in the Middle East, with far-reaching global implications.

Sectarian violence could erupt on a scale never seen before in Iraq if coalition troops leave before Iraq’s security forces are ready. Supporters of al Qaeda could develop an international hub of terror from which to threaten the West. And the likely civil war could draw countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran into a broader conflict. (more…)

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And then there is this story which was floating around yesterday.

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From WaPo:

Iraqi government officials said Tuesday they believed the leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq was killed north of Baghdad, but U.S. military officials said they could not confirm the reported death.

The Iraqi ministers of defense and interior told reporters there was reliable information that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the nom de guerre of a man believed to have taken over the group’s leadership after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in fighting near Taji. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed those reports but said DNA testing would be done to verify Masri’s death. (more…)

Al Qaeda in Iraq [ 2:25 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Al Qaeda, Iraq, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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Let me say this, these poll numbers are interesting. Unfortunately, interesting is not going to get us out of Iraq. The Republicans, the folks that voted for Bush and his gang twice, will have to pressure the House and Senate Republicans to split with the President. Only when the R’s in Congress are feeling the heat of re-election or not being re-elected will the Dem’s have enough votes to override a veto.

Full text of poll.

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From MSNBC.com:

As the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House clash over an Iraq spending bill, with President Bush vowing to veto it because it contains withdrawal deadlines, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans side with the Democrats.

In addition, a nearly equal number believe that victory in Iraq isn’t possible, and about only one in eight think the war has improved in the three months since Bush called for a troop increase there. (more…)

NBC-WSJ poll [ 3:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Media, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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President has staked his whole Presidency on Iraq. He can’t back down. The democrats can back down but not without looking like a bunch of wimps. The only way that the Dems win this fight is to get the American people to pressure Congress. The Congress will have to pass legislation that would be veto proof. The Dems need to keep everyone that they have an get 8 – 10 R’s to cross over.

Can they do that? For the sake of the country and our troops, I hope that do.

Jack Murtha continues to push to end Iraq War [ 5:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Military, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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Remember the dirty bomber, Jose Padilla (I discuss this case with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com)? He was one of the first persons that the US picked up in the War on Terror. He was labeled an Enemy Combatant. He was held with out charges or trial for more than 3 years. Now, it looks like the government is finally going to put him on trial.

Mr. Padilla is the best example of our government losing the constitution. This is is different than John Walker Lindh (an American catch in Afghanistan) or 9/11 master mind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who recently confessed). Padilla was/is an American. He was picked up in the US. He was tortured. He was kept without any legal representation. He was not even charged with a crime for years. It is not a stretch to say that almost any American could be treated like this.

Who is Jose Padilla? [ 1:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Al Qaeda, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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More than a year ago, I saw General Anthony Zinni on The Daily Show.  I also heard him on the Al Franken Show.  OMG, he was great.  He understands the problem. He is what I think of when I think of a modern General.  Intelligent, thoughtful, decisive.  He is credible.  He is the exact person that makes it nearly impossible for the administration to Swift Boat him.

Part of his transcript later.

HB - General anthony Zinni [ 7:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, War on Terror by ecthompson md
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