It has been an interesting week in the Global War On Terror.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (I am never sure if I have spelt that name right or not - what were her parents thinking LOL), in essence defending the practise of 'extraordinary rendition', where the US flies suspected terrorists to third countries to interrogate them, saying that the United States did not torture prisoners or enemy combatants. With a very narrow definition of torture, swaddled in legalese - reminds me of the kerfuffle about what is sex when Monica was polishing off Bill in the Oval Office, and what sex was or wasn't LOL.
Although of course the whole process is so not a laughing or lol matter. Who was it that said waterboarding, making prisoners think they are drowning, who said that wasn't torture? Rumsfeld or Cheney or someone I think. If that is the US Administration's view of what and what isn't torture, it is a very narrow definition indeed.
And then being disingeneous and saying how good are our European allies if they question us on this, and saying about obligations under the Global War On Terror and all. And also taking a swipe saying surely the spy agencies and governments in Europe already knew about this. How to make friends and influence enemies indeed. Umm, Condi, your government screwed up the obligations under the GWOT as soon as Saddam was accused of aiding Al Qaeda.
And then there was a very interesting BBC documentary over the last three nights on SBS - yes, in between getting my fill of The Bachelor LOL - which basically said that there wasn't such a thing as an overarching organisational structure for Al Qaeda anyways. That Osama bin Laden supplied the money during Afghanistan - the Soviet years Afghanistan that is - but that since then he has just been a figurehead for the neocons in Washington to bash. Not sure if I agree with that or not, but the doco had a persuasive idea...
Not so much whether Al Qaeda as imagined by Bush and Blair exists, or even the whole anti terror laws in the West are over reacting, abolishing civil liberties and such - a mentally ill man in Miami said he had a bomb on a plane and got shot dead by air marshals yesterday, no doubt the White House reaction to that will be not to allow mentally ill people on any airplane ever again - not so much the Al Qaeda angle in the documentary was interesting, though it was...
But it was priceless seeing vintage Rummy talking up the Soviet threat during the 80s - he is just as great an orator about the phantom KGB divisions as the dead enders and Saddamists in Iraq. Or was that Bush who said that hmm. And was awesome in the doco to see such a wide range of interviewees for the show - they had the neocons, the academic liberals, the Afghan fighters, and even Gorby LOL.
Thinking back to 1989 and when the Berlin Wall fell, everyone thought that was the end of history basically. At least on the Western side of the world. How silly we all were - we got away with it for twelve years though, having Clinton as president and having Seinfeld as the number one TV show during that time. The 1990s had Seinfeld, this decade has 24, with executions of terrorists the 'highlights' of the series hmm. Versus seeing George Kostanza naked and a whole debate about shrinkage...
Not meaning to denigrate Somalia, Bosnia or Rwanda, or uplift Big Brother, American Idol or Paris Hilton, but just a stream of consciousness that the 90s for the West was laid back and relaxed, whereas we are all fearful and uptight nowadays. Capitalism, we, had won over the Evil Empire.
While we are what iffing here, might as well what if about John McCain winning the Republican nomination in 2000. Maybe then we wouldn't have the US admitting that not all GWOT prisoners are visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross, like in this story. Artfully getting back on topic, if I do say so myself :)
At least the British courts are less puppy dog than the government is to US policy. In a landmark decision yesterday, the Law Lords said that intelligence extracted by torture is not admissible in any British court. This overturned an appeals court ruling that as long as the Brits themselves didn't do the torturing, evidence from interrogation in third countries was OK. Yay, a small victory for common sense.
And then there are the cases when the authorities screw up. The ACLU - yes they are still in business, haven't been shut down by Dick Cheney - has taken on board a case where a Lebanese born German, who had nothing to do with terrorism, was kidnapped from holidaying in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan, 'coercively' interrogated, and disappeared off the face of the earth for five months.
How can I possibly encompass in words how fucked up the Western world, and US foreign policy in particular, has become? On the ACLU case, Condi, speaking in Berlin with the German Chancellor, said mistakes would be rectified. Yeah, we all believe you after the butt covering, prosecute the grunts on the ground reaction to Abu Ghraib.
The truth probably is that world opinion doesn't count for a sackful of beans in America.
Condi also disingeneously linked extraordinary rendition to those cheese eating surrender monkeys in Paris, saying Carlos the Jackal had been kidnapped from Sudan by the French secret service back in 1994. I wonder if Carlos was waterboarded at all? And of course not making the more appropriate US to France comparison of Iraq this decade and Algeria in the 1950s.
Two big Iraq stories this week - in amongst all the minor patter of death and destruction - two female policewoman became suicide bombers at a police academy and killed 36, a bus bombing yesterday on the Baghdad to Nasiriya route, 30 dead. Elections next week - when was the last time Bush said freedom was on the march? Oh, probably yesterday, it's not as if I go in depth with his speeches, and when I do skim them I do so with my search engine locked on liberial bias cynicism LOL.
Rant rant rant - hopefully I got some of it out of my system.
Pauly
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (I am never sure if I have spelt that name right or not - what were her parents thinking LOL), in essence defending the practise of 'extraordinary rendition', where the US flies suspected terrorists to third countries to interrogate them, saying that the United States did not torture prisoners or enemy combatants. With a very narrow definition of torture, swaddled in legalese - reminds me of the kerfuffle about what is sex when Monica was polishing off Bill in the Oval Office, and what sex was or wasn't LOL.
Although of course the whole process is so not a laughing or lol matter. Who was it that said waterboarding, making prisoners think they are drowning, who said that wasn't torture? Rumsfeld or Cheney or someone I think. If that is the US Administration's view of what and what isn't torture, it is a very narrow definition indeed.
And then being disingeneous and saying how good are our European allies if they question us on this, and saying about obligations under the Global War On Terror and all. And also taking a swipe saying surely the spy agencies and governments in Europe already knew about this. How to make friends and influence enemies indeed. Umm, Condi, your government screwed up the obligations under the GWOT as soon as Saddam was accused of aiding Al Qaeda.
And then there was a very interesting BBC documentary over the last three nights on SBS - yes, in between getting my fill of The Bachelor LOL - which basically said that there wasn't such a thing as an overarching organisational structure for Al Qaeda anyways. That Osama bin Laden supplied the money during Afghanistan - the Soviet years Afghanistan that is - but that since then he has just been a figurehead for the neocons in Washington to bash. Not sure if I agree with that or not, but the doco had a persuasive idea...
Not so much whether Al Qaeda as imagined by Bush and Blair exists, or even the whole anti terror laws in the West are over reacting, abolishing civil liberties and such - a mentally ill man in Miami said he had a bomb on a plane and got shot dead by air marshals yesterday, no doubt the White House reaction to that will be not to allow mentally ill people on any airplane ever again - not so much the Al Qaeda angle in the documentary was interesting, though it was...
But it was priceless seeing vintage Rummy talking up the Soviet threat during the 80s - he is just as great an orator about the phantom KGB divisions as the dead enders and Saddamists in Iraq. Or was that Bush who said that hmm. And was awesome in the doco to see such a wide range of interviewees for the show - they had the neocons, the academic liberals, the Afghan fighters, and even Gorby LOL.
Thinking back to 1989 and when the Berlin Wall fell, everyone thought that was the end of history basically. At least on the Western side of the world. How silly we all were - we got away with it for twelve years though, having Clinton as president and having Seinfeld as the number one TV show during that time. The 1990s had Seinfeld, this decade has 24, with executions of terrorists the 'highlights' of the series hmm. Versus seeing George Kostanza naked and a whole debate about shrinkage...
Not meaning to denigrate Somalia, Bosnia or Rwanda, or uplift Big Brother, American Idol or Paris Hilton, but just a stream of consciousness that the 90s for the West was laid back and relaxed, whereas we are all fearful and uptight nowadays. Capitalism, we, had won over the Evil Empire.
While we are what iffing here, might as well what if about John McCain winning the Republican nomination in 2000. Maybe then we wouldn't have the US admitting that not all GWOT prisoners are visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross, like in this story. Artfully getting back on topic, if I do say so myself :)
At least the British courts are less puppy dog than the government is to US policy. In a landmark decision yesterday, the Law Lords said that intelligence extracted by torture is not admissible in any British court. This overturned an appeals court ruling that as long as the Brits themselves didn't do the torturing, evidence from interrogation in third countries was OK. Yay, a small victory for common sense.
And then there are the cases when the authorities screw up. The ACLU - yes they are still in business, haven't been shut down by Dick Cheney - has taken on board a case where a Lebanese born German, who had nothing to do with terrorism, was kidnapped from holidaying in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan, 'coercively' interrogated, and disappeared off the face of the earth for five months.
How can I possibly encompass in words how fucked up the Western world, and US foreign policy in particular, has become? On the ACLU case, Condi, speaking in Berlin with the German Chancellor, said mistakes would be rectified. Yeah, we all believe you after the butt covering, prosecute the grunts on the ground reaction to Abu Ghraib.
The truth probably is that world opinion doesn't count for a sackful of beans in America.
Condi also disingeneously linked extraordinary rendition to those cheese eating surrender monkeys in Paris, saying Carlos the Jackal had been kidnapped from Sudan by the French secret service back in 1994. I wonder if Carlos was waterboarded at all? And of course not making the more appropriate US to France comparison of Iraq this decade and Algeria in the 1950s.
Two big Iraq stories this week - in amongst all the minor patter of death and destruction - two female policewoman became suicide bombers at a police academy and killed 36, a bus bombing yesterday on the Baghdad to Nasiriya route, 30 dead. Elections next week - when was the last time Bush said freedom was on the march? Oh, probably yesterday, it's not as if I go in depth with his speeches, and when I do skim them I do so with my search engine locked on liberial bias cynicism LOL.
Rant rant rant - hopefully I got some of it out of my system.
Pauly
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