Bookmarks

Just marking a few pages worth reading.

1. Today, the Times editorial page notes the disturbing trend in Obama's rhetoric and positions: endorsing the evisceration of FISA, lauding the public financing of religious organizations, and the endorsement of SCOTUS's recent decision on the 2nd amendment. We could add the 'newly' thought out position on Iraq withdrawal (in short the Bush-style nonsense: "I'll listen to my generals"; didn't Clinton rightly say that generals listen to her, if she were president, and not the other way around?). Yikes. Change we can believe in--if we were ostriches.

2. A must read: McClatchy's five-part blockbuster on 'war on terror' detainees, based on an 8-month long investigation.

Some highlights:

--"The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst."

--"But the extent of the mistreatment, and that it [abuse detention center at Bagram, Afghanistan--mn] eclipsed the alleged abuse at Guantanamo, hasn't previously been revealed.

Guards said they routinely beat their prisoners to retaliate for al Qaida's 9-11 attacks, unaware that the vast majority of the detainees had little or no connection to al Qaida."

--"The soldier who faced the most serious charges, Spc. Willie Brand, admitted that he hit Dilawar about 37 times, including some 30 times in the flesh around the knees during one session in an isolation cell.

Brand, who faced up to 11 years in prison, was reduced in rank to private — his only punishment — after he was found guilty of assaulting and maiming Dilawar."

--"'Really, nobody was in charge ... the leadership did nothing to help us. If we had any questions, it was pretty much 'figure it out on your own,' " Cammack [a former specialist with the 377th Military Police Company--mn] said. 'When you asked about protocol they said it's a work in progress.'"

--"Sen. Carl Levin, who's leading an investigation into the origins of the harsh interrogation techniques, said at a hearing Tuesday that the abuse wasn't the result of 'a few bad apples' within the military, as the White House has claimed. 'The truth is that senior officials in the United States government sought information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality and authorized their use against detainees,' said Levin, a Michigan Democrat."

--"The quintet [senior Bush administration lawyers responsible for detainee policy, including Addington and Gonzales--mn] did more than condone harsh treatment, however. It created an environment in which it was nearly impossible to prosecute soldiers or officials for alleged crimes committed in U.S. detention facilities."

--"Trust between the uniformed military lawyers and the Bush administration collapsed in the months after 9-11."

--"'John Yoo wanted to use military commissions in the manner they were used in the Indian wars," Romig said. 'I looked at him and said, 'You know, that was 100-and-something years ago. You're out of your mind; we're talking about the law.'"

The military commissions that the U.S. used against Native Americans during the mid-19th century were often ad hoc and frequently resulted in natives being hanged or shot.

'As they viewed it, due process is legal mumbo jumbo,' said Romig, who's now the dean of Washburn University's law school. 'They wanted to get them, get the facts and convict them. ... If you're caught as a terrorist, you're presumed guilty and you have to prove you're innocent. It was crazy.'"

Caution: read the rest at your own risk; it will cause nausea and moral disgust.


3. Seymour Hersh's article on secret ops missions into Iran. Bush demanded and (Democratic) Congress approved. Despite appearances, the Democrats are just as willing to subvert democracy as Bush is.

UPDATE:

4. Democracy, Mugabe-style. The Washington Post gets inside Mugabe's (and his military henchmen's) means of maintaining power.

"In the three months between the March 29 vote and the June 27 runoff election, ruling-party militias under the guidance of 200 senior army officers battered the Movement for Democratic Change, bringing the opposition party's network of activists to the verge of oblivion. By election day, more than 80 opposition supporters were dead, hundreds were missing, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands were homeless. Morgan Tsvangirai, the party's leader, dropped out of the contest and took refuge in the Dutch Embassy."

According to the report, after the initial vote, which Mugabe lost, he was planning on relinquishing power. The military "convinced" him that "the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make." This is a well-known problem for leading in an unstable country. Even with the best of intentions and plans (not that this describes Mugabe), the leader of an unstable country needs to keep the wolves at bay in order to stay in power. The reasoning is that it would be worse to let the wolves have total power. However, there comes a point at which it becomes difficult to distinguish the solution from the problem, as the case of Zimbabwe demonstrates.