May 15, 2004
Michael J. Fox on stem-cell research.
Business Week has a very interesting
interview with Michael J. Fox, who himself has Parkinson's Disease, on the question of stem-cell research to help victims of that and other degenerative diseases.
Q: The religious right continues to speak out against experimental cloning techniques that might be used to harvest stem cells. They fear the same technology could be abused, perhaps in an attempt to clone babies. The U.S. House of Representatives even passed a bill that proposed criminalizing such research. As a patient, how do you respond when you hear news like this?
A: It's ridiculous. It's so self-defeating for those of us with Parkinson's and other degenerative diseases. We don't want to create Frankenstein or clone our Uncle Charlie so we can play poker with him again. It's nuts. We just want to save lives.
If the government were to allow funding for embryonic stem-cell research, it could use its own power of oversight to apply standards to the research that people will feel comfortable with. The research will happen anyway. But it will happen in other countries now, and we won't have as much input.
Q: How might Nancy Reagan speaking out in favor of stem-cell research now influence the debate?
A: It's hugely important. She's viewed as a conservative, but her support of stem cell research will help people to look beyond politics. She has a lot on her plate -- she could have just sat this out. She'll help drive home the point that this is not an "issue." It's a potential breakthrough that could have a huge impact on people's lives.
...
Q: Do you believe enough private funding is out there to push stem-cell research forward?
A: No. The science is way ahead of the money. We sit and look back at 2001, when the President banned all funding for research on everything but a few cell lines, and we think, that's three years -- gone.
Our foundation is trying to fill that void. But it's like the old cliché, the government can throw more money at something by accident than we could on purpose.
The American climate of torture.
The
Asia Times, a superb source of objective information on global affairs, is running a series on America's climate of torture, Brutality Starts At Home, which shows how what has become a pervasive pattern and practice of torturing and abusing its own citizens, especially its children, has now begun to be exported to the rest of the world.
The two articles are
Torture? Just another day at the office by Ritt Goldstein, and
Abuse travels very well
by Jack Smith.
In the first Goldstein reviews the increasing amount of violence by American police officers (and others, but especially by the police) over the past decades, and shows how it has created an environment where torture and abuse are considered not only acceptable, but admirable and essential.
His review of a number of cases is particularly effective.
In 1998, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on systemic, coast-to-coast abuse by US law enforcement, "Shielded from Justice". The report found a pervasive violation of "the public's trust", coupled with "defective" accountability systems and a "tolerant" leadership, allowing US law enforcement to commit crimes with "impunity" nationwide. As regards what the effective acceptance of the abuse of such authority has meant in the United States:
A November 10, 2003 report by Houston's 11 News began: "Where can you lie, cheat or steal and still keep your job? Or how about repeatedly getting drunk and getting behind the wheel? Or assaulting your wife or girlfriend? The answer in dozens of cases is the Houston Police Department."
Paralleling Iraqi charges of sodomizing prisoners, the most famous case in the US was that of Abner Louima in 1997, sodomized with a toilet plunger, with the blood and feces-covered plunger then used to break out his front teeth. When initially investigated by New York City police, the incident was reported as "self-inflicted"; though officer Justin Volpe later pleaded guilty to the crime. The latest major news report of similar conduct was provided in the November 7, 2003 Minneapolis Star Tribune, with Stephen Porter alleging that "police sexually assaulted him with the handle of a toilet plunger", the paper reported, noting a witness account appeared to corroborate Porter's story.
HRW's report also addressed the "repeated practice of torture by Chicago police", with electric shock being the favored technique, supplemented by burning prisoners. "Shielded from Justice" specifically cites a report of electric shock applied to the "head and genitals". The group notes that after the city "settled the claim of 13-year-old Marcus Wiggins", the attorneys representing the boy in his torture suit were able to secure internal police documents, providing further evidence to support torture claims. The City of Chicago did eventually acknowledge that "planned torture" occurred.
While US media have reported the use of dogs and armed threat against Iraqi detainees, a November 7, 2003 report by CBS News detailed a police drug raid on Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina. There, students were forced to "lie on the floor", while they endured "guns put to their head and a K9 dog". Notably, no drugs were found in the "commando-style raid", according to CBS, but the "school's principal defends the dramatic sweep", they reported.
As regards charges that chemicals from broken light fixtures were poured on some Iraqi detainees, the March 20, 2004 New York Times reported on a police officer "spraying pepper spray (a powerful chemical irritant used by police) into the mouth of a man who died in custody after being wrongly picked up". Lesser incidents of pepper spray abuse are widely reported as virtually commonplace.
Regarding the alleged rape of a young Iraqi man in custody, reports of sexual assault by US law enforcement frequently surface; notably, a number of these have been alleged incidents of a male officer attacking a female officer. As regards the sexual violation of young people, a June 25, 2003 report by the Associated Press began by noting that "at least a dozen teenagers assigned to work with police departments as part of the Boy Scouts' Law Enforcement Explorers program have allegedly been sexually abused by officers during the past year", with the incidents reported from coast-to-coast. The article mentioned some specific cases, including a Texas case where "former police officer John Ross Ewing, 28, was indicted by a grand jury in March on charges that he sexually assaulted two male Explorer scouts, ages 15 and 16".
In the other article, Smith reviews the history of American violence and torture, and showing how, contrary to Bush's assertion that "that's not the way we do things in America," it actually is exactly the way Americans do things, and always have.
Actually, torture is not uncommon in terms of Washington's interaction with many other countries and in the overall "war on terrorism". Let's look at a few of Washington's experiences with torture in modern times.
After organizing the overthrow of the elected government of Iran in 1953 in order to install a puppet monarchy in Teheran - a political catastrophe resulting in the torture and deaths of thousands of defenders of democracy - the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created SAVIC, one of the most vicious secret police agencies in the world. To protect its investment, the CIA trained SAVIC in the most up-to-day varieties of torture, which it deployed with abandon until the Shah of Iran was ousted a quarter-century later.
Starting in the mid-1960s, various US government agencies trained the right-wing regime in Uruguay in the refinements of torture. In addition to providing lessons, and taking part in the torture of dissidents and suspected communists in Uruguay, the CIA offered two-month training courses in the US. Over the years the same instructions were provided to the governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other Latin American regimes, leading to the mass use of torture in Latin America and to the creation of the notorious death squads.
America's most well documented direct participation in mass torture took place during the Vietnam War years when the CIA and US soldiers subjected tens of thousands of poor peasants and "Viet Cong" suspects to the most painful punishments devised since the Inquisition. My Lai was not unique. Nearly 30 years after Vietnam was liberated, the hidden horrors perpetuated by the US are still emerging. The Toledo (Ohio) Blade newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize last month for exposing the atrocities and tortures conducted by the so-called Tiger Force unit.
The US involvement with torture has increased measurably since the Bush administration launched its "war on terrorism" in September 2001, but most of it is conducted outside the country in various concentration camps operated by the Pentagon in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba); in smaller secret facilities run by the CIA in unnamed locations in order to interrogate alleged top al-Qaeda suspects; and in foreign countries within Washington's orbit which engage in torture themselves.
These are just selections. Both articles go on to offer more instances, and to provide some chilling conclusions. But at this point it's becoming clear that this isn't a few "bad apples", but the very heart of American culture and represents the views and desires of the majority of the American people. At least the white ones.
(Virtually all of the instances of torture are of whites torturing non-whites. Not entirely so, but very close. I didn't see any African-American or Mexican-American soldiers in those photos. There may have been some, but I for one believe that one of the major factors underlying these actions is a pervasive belief that non-whites are simply non-human, and aren't deserving of any respect or consideration.)
And this clearly isn't entirely due to the Republicans, although so many so-called liberals would like you to believe it is. On the contrary. Is it just coincidence that under the regime of Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore, two white southerners, the rate of incarceration of people of color accelerated so rapidly, and that the reports of torture by white police became so commonplace? As Goldstein notes:
Addressing the results of domestic allegations made to the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department, HRW (Human Rights Watch) found that of 10,129 civil rights cases that were reviewed, approximately 1 in 500 resulted in a Justice Department attempt to prosecute. More disturbing, HRW found that in some US police departments the particularly abusive officers are "often rewarded", being given "positive evaluations and promotions".
The HRW report was issued in 1998. That is, during the Clinton-Gore administration. As I say, two white southerners. It's time the Democrats acknowledged this, and stopped blaming Bush for everything.
Since the 2000 elections, many Democrats have been claiming that Bush stole the election, in particular claiming that many thousands of African-American Floridians had been wrongly disenfrancised, and that their votes would have turned the tide. But the policies to (unconstitutionally by the way) take away the vote from so-called drug users was vigorously supported and enforced by Bill Clinton. Al Gore never once mentioned it during the election.]
Which is not to say that only whites commit torture and other crimes. On the contrary. See the
post I made yesterday on an article by Arundhati Roy detailing incidents of the same type of thing in India. And there are many similar stories coming out of Africa. But unlike Americans the people in these places don't have the power or resources to implement this as a worldwide strategy, and to continue with it decade after decade after decade.
Dawn of the Daddy State?
An
interesting essay by Paul Starobin on the new authoritarianism in the
Atlantic Online.
An authoritarian push is often seen as coming from above, forced on an unsuspecting public by would-be autocrats. But today's global trend toward what might be called the Daddy State is propelled by the anxious demands of majority blocs of citizens. The Russians recently re-elected Vladimir Putin, a former KGB colonel, with 71 percent of the vote, handing him a mandate to continue his crackdown on Chechen terrorists. The Israelis are demanding the Fence—envisioned as a sniper-patrolled, electrified national barrier aimed at keeping out Palestinian suicide bombers. Not only do Americans broadly support Bush's Patriot Act, but women—who worry more than men do that they or someone close to them will fall victim to terrorism—tend to view the measure as not tough enough, according to a recent Gallup poll. Europeans are demanding closer policing of their rapidly growing Muslim minority, which now stands at 15 million in the EU.
In short, we are at the dawn of a popularly sanctioned movement toward greater authoritarianism in the domain of what is now fashionably called "homeland security." As Thomas Hobbes explained in his mid-seventeenth-century treatise Leviathan (a work that can be read as a primer on homeland security), there is no real contradiction in the idea of authoritarianism as a choice. In a proverbial state of nature, man willingly gives up some portion of his liberty to a sovereign as the only conceivable protector of his life and property. During times of relative quiet and prosperity it is easy to forget that this sort of bargain exists—but in times of danger, woe to the sovereign that neglects its duty to protect.
To say that we are at the beginning of an authoritarian age is not, of course, to end the conversation but to begin it. The challenge is to get authoritarianism right, and it's important to identify what could go wrong as we try to meet the demands of this new era. One obvious danger, fascism, already lurks at the door of Russia, a humiliated country whose color has shifted from red to brown since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991. Putin is proving to be a manipulative paternalist, exploiting fears of Chechen terrorists and thuggish business oligarchs to nourish nationalist sentiment and his own cult of personality in the Kremlin.
One exception I would make to his thesis is that this is a "global" trend. All of the examples he presents are of mostly white nations, or at least those where virtually all of the money and power are controlled by whites. Perhaps rather than the "new authoritarianism", we have rather the new "white supremacy." Unfortunately way too many academics and others in the US and Europe tend to assume that trends in their countries represent worldwide trends, when in fact they simply don't. On the contrary, these countries now represent only a small part of the global population, less than ten percent, and a rapidly dwindling percentage at that.
The Geneva Convention.
Here's a link to the
complete text of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. From the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Adopted on 12 August 1949 by the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, held in Geneva from 21 April to 12 August, 1949. Entry into force 21 October 1950.
Sympathy for Lynndie England.
Via
The Pinocchio Theory, Steven Shaviro's highly literate weblog, and one new to me. An excellent and thought-provoking essay.
And now those pictures have been published, and you are the most infamous woman in the world; and they're going to throw the book at you, and basically you have no future and no hope. But of course somebody has to take the fall; and of course it will never be the people who imagined it, who organized it, who trained you in it, who told you to do it, and whose dreams of conquering and looting the world you were never really privy to. They can't be blamed, so it has to be somebody like you, who was poor and without prospects to begin with. No matter how deeply you felt that esprit de corps, you never were a member of that elite, and you never would be; you were expendable from the beginning, and your life is the price our rulers are happily willing to pay, as they pursue their program of conquest and domination.
He's perfectly correct of course. They take poor, uneducated people, who mostly joined up simply because they couldn't find any other job, or any other way out of their particular dead end, train them to be killers, and to do their dirty work for them, and then blame them when the going gets tough. Reminds me of that line from Dylan's
License to Kill, "And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill."
Languages on the web.
Via
Wood s Lot is a site devoted to languages on the web, entitled very simply
languages on the web. They offer over 30,000 language links and "everything you need to learn language on the web." Rather impressive. Lots of translations in virtually every language, and lots of links to other sites as well. I especially like that they have parallel translations available, where you can read the same text in two different languages. This makes it much easier to learn.
Army-Times editorial on Abu Ghraib.
Those that think all outrage at the abuses comes from "liberals", "lefties," and general malcontents, and in particular, from those who are opposed to the military on general principle, might want to read a recent
editorial from the
Army-Times, hardly a hotbed of pacifist thought. They condemn it in no uncertain times, and even go so far as to state categorically that it is a problem caused by incompetence at the highest levels, not by just a few low-ranking soldiers.
Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.
Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable.
But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.
There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.
But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.
The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.
In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.
...
One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime.
...
This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.
Fairly extraordinary, given that it comes straight from the soldiers who are actually fighting and dying in this war. Having said that, however, I still have to wonder how much the "code of silence" that permeates both American police and military forces contributed to the problem. And I have to wonder why the Army-Times themselves didn't report on the problem much earlier. If the reports that CD's of the photos were routinely shared in Army mess-halls are true, then knowledge of what was going on was definitely widespread within the troops themselves, and, presumably, by reporters for the Army-times. Why didn't they speak up?
I'd never browsed there before, but the
Army Times site is rather interesting. Turns out there is also a
NavyTimes, a
Marine Corps Times, and a
Air Force Times. And a
Military City site that shows the best of all of these.
May 14, 2004
Red Cross report on Iraqi prisons.
Here's a
link to the complete Red Cross report published last February. Full title: Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation.
Here's the conclusion:
CONCLUSION
59. This ICRC report documents serious violations of International Humanitarian Law relating to the conditions of treatment of the persons deprived of their liberty held by the CF in Iraq. In particular, it establishes that persons deprived of their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a process of physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to torture, in the early stages of the internment process.
60. Once the interrogation process is over, the conditions of treatment for the persons deprived of their liberty generally improve. except in the "High Value Detainee" section at Baghdad International Airport where persons deprived of their liberty have been held for nearly 23 hours a day in strict solitary confinement in small concrete cells devoid of daylight, an internment regime which does not comply with provisions of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions.
61. During internment, persons deprived of their liberty also risk being victims of disproportionate and excessive use of force on the part of detaining authorities attempting to restore order in the event of unrest or to prevent escapes.
62. Another serious violation of International Humanitarian Law described in the report is the CF's inability or lack of will to set up a system of notifications of arrests for the families of persons deprived of liberty in Iraq. This violation of provisions of International Humanitarian Law causes immense distress among persons deprived of their liberty and their families, the latter fearing that their relatives unaccounted for are dead. The uncaring behaviour of the CF and their inability to quickly provide accurate information on persons. deprived of their liberty for the families concerned also seriously affects the image of the Occupying Powers amongst the Iraqi population.
63. In addition to recommendations highlighted in the report relating to conditions of internment, information given to persons deprived of their liberty upon arrest, and the need to investigate violations of International Humanitarian Law and to prosecute those found responsible, the ICRC wishes particularly to remind the CF of their duty:
- to respect at all times the human dignity, physical integrity and cultural sensitivity of persons deprived of their liberty held under their control;
- to set up a system of notifications of arrests to ensure that the families of persons deprived of their liberty are quickly and accurately informed;
to prevent all forms of ill-treatment and moral or physical coercion of persons deprived of their liberty in connection with interrogations;
- to instruct the arresting and detaining authorities that causing serious bodily injury or serious harm to the health of protected persons is prohibited under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions
- to set up an internment regime that ensures respect for the psychological integrity and human dignity of the persons deprived of their liberty
- to ensure that battle group units arresting individuals and staff in charge of internment facilities receive adequate training enabling them to operate in a proper manner and fulfill their responsibilities without resorting to ill-treatment or using excessive force.
The practices described in this report are prohibited under International Humanitarian Law. They warrant serious attention by the CF. In particular, the CF should review their policies and practices, take corrective action and improve the treatment of prisoners of war and other protected persons under their authority. This report is part of the bilateral and confidential dialogue undertaken by the ICRC with the CF. In the future, the ICRC will continue its bilateral and confidential dialogue with the CF in accordance with provisions of International Humanitarian Law, on the basis of monitoring the conditions of arrest, interrogation and internment of persons deprived of their liberty held by the CF.
The Moscow Times
reports new laws have gone into effect which reduce drug possession, at least in limited amounts, to an administrative infraction rather than a criminal offense. That's a big step forward in restoring civil liberties there, and once again shows how the rest of the world is moving ahead of the US in this area.
Under a new law that came into effect this week, drug users can possess a greatly increased amount of an illegal substance -- for instance, 20 grams of marijuana or 1.5 grams of cocaine -- without the risk of being thrown in jail.
The law has been criticized by the Federal Anti-Drug Service, which says it hampers the battle against drugs, but praised by those who work to rehabilitate drug addicts, who predict more addicts will now seek help.
President Vladimir Putin signed an amendment to the Criminal Code in December stipulating that possession of no more than 10 times the amount of a "single dose" would now be considered an administrative infraction rather than a criminal offense. Punishment would be a fine of no more than 40,000 rubles ($1,380) or community service.
It then took five months to hammer out what would be considered the single dose of various drugs.
Ten times the amount of a single dose, as set in the government resolution that came into effect Wednesday, is 20 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of hashish, mescaline or opium, 1.5 grams of cocaine, 1 gram of heroin or methamphetamine, and 0.003 grams of LSD.
Anyone caught in possession of these amounts or less cannot legally be detained, a spokeswoman for the Moscow branch of the Federal Anti-Drug Service said. Instead, a report will be filed and the fine will be determined by a court.
The
Moscow Times puts articles behind a paywall after a couple of weeks, so the link to the article won't be valid after a while.
The Cook's Thesaurus.
Stopped by Andrea Flick's
weblog over in Germany, and she had some nice links regarding food and cooking.
I particularly liked the
The Cook's Thesaurus, which is "a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions." The food of the month is chocolate, and they offer up some quick tips.
Chocolate is made from tropical cacao beans, which are transformed by machines and an inveterate spelling error into a bitter, brown paste of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. When this unsweetened chocolate is combined with sugar, vanilla, and other ingredients, the result, of course, is heavenly.
Chocolate's notoriously hard to work with. If you don't store it properly (preferably at 65° or so), the cocoa butter can separate slightly from the solids, causing the chocolate to "bloom." This leaves a telltale gray residue on the surface and impairs the taste and texture slightly. Chocolate will scorch if you melt it at too high a temperature, or "seize" and become thick and grainy if you add even a drop of cold liquid to it as it's melting. You can prevent it from seizing by adding hot liquids (like cream) to chopped chocolate in order to melt it, or by making sure that anything you're dipping into the melted chocolate (like a strawberry or whisk) is perfectly dry. If your chocolate has seized, you can still use it in any recipe that calls for chocolate to be blended with a liquid. Just add the liquid to the chocolate and melt it again.
A couple other useful links she gives are
this one to a food-related discussion on Metafilter, and one to Gernot Katzer's
Spice Pages, which contains info on 117 (so far) different kinds of herbs and spices.
Andrea's site is always interesting. She's one of the original bloggers and always has some interesting links, and usually some great photos as well. Particularly good if you understand German, since she writes in both that and English.
The latest from Baghdad Burning.
In her
latest post from Baghdad, Riverbend, the lady behind
Baghdad Burning, talks about Berg's beheading, Rumsfeld's visit and much more.
She's appalled by the beheading, as are most ordinary Iraqis. But sees it as an inevitable result of what's going on. Simply put, the people there are angry, frightened and desperate to do something. Anything. She's equally appalled at Rumsfeld's visit. To her, they're two sides of the same coin.
I was sick to my stomach when I first saw the video on some news channel and stood petrified, watching the screen and praying that they wouldn't show it whole because for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I feel horrible. Was I shocked? Was I surprised? Hardly. We've been expecting this since the first pictures of the torture of Iraqi prisoners broke out. There's a certain rage in many people that is frightening. There's a certain hunger and need for revenge that lame apologies from Bush and surprise visits from Rumsfeld won't appease.
...
They let out around 300+ prisoners today while that sadistic fiend Rumsfeld was in town. Apparently, setting 300 prisoners free of the thousands currently detained is supposed to mollify Iraqis- quite like Bush's lame half-apology to King Abdallah of Jordan. What is King Abdallah to us? What does it matter if Bush gets down and begs him for forgiveness? What in God's name does he represent to the Iraqi people?
But she ends with a reminder that, despite everything, life still goes on. And kids still have to take exams before they get off for summer vacation.
The end-of-the-year examinations have started in most of the schools. The school administrations are trying to get them over with as soon as humanly possible. It's already unbearably hot and dusty and the heat gets worse as summer progresses. Last year examinations were held in June and July and children were fainting in the summer heat in schools with no electricity. We're hoping to avoid that this year.
We're all donating money to the school in the area so they can remain hooked up to the local power generator during the day while the kids are being tested. You can see them in the streets and trapped behind car windows looking flushed and wilted. We're all praying that they'll be able to finish the year without anything drastic happening (well, relatively drastic).
The air feels stale and stagnant in Baghdad lately. There's disappointment and exhaustion and a certain resignation to the anger and fear that seem to have taken over during recent weeks.
Powell says Bush was informed about problems with prisoners.
The Baltimore Sun
reports that Colin Powell said that Bush was very definitely informed about complaints raised by the Red Cross and others as early as January. Which would directly contradict Bush's claim that he only recently became aware of the problems. (Via
Talking Points Memo.)
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he and other top officials kept President Bush "fully informed ... in general terms" about complaints made by the Red Cross and others over ill-treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
Powell's statement suggests Bush may have known earlier than the White House has acknowledged about complaints raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights groups regarding abuse of detainees in Iraq.
"We kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us ... we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that's what he expected us to do," Powell said.
Powell said that he, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld kept Bush "fully informed of the concerns that were being expressed, not in specific details, but in general terms."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last week that the president was first informed about the abuse of detainees in Iraq by Rumsfeld, who "let the president know that there were allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraq and that the military was taking action to address it."
McClellan did not give a precise date, but Rumsfeld, testifying before Congress, said he told the president in late January or early February about an investigation being conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba into alleged abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, the main U.S. detention facility in Iraq.
Bush has said he did not see the graphic pictures of the abuse until they were broadcast on television.
Powell, in his comments yesterday, appeared to be trying to show that he and his department did not ignore or minimize early reports of the abuse when they began to surface last year.
US pressuring other nations to contribute troops to Iraq.
The Guardian
reports on the latest attempts by the US to get other nations to contribute troops to support its attempted conquest of Iraq.
Apparently things are getting so tight now that it's even begging Albania, of all nations, for whatever help it can offer. And maybe the Albanians are still on America's side, but few other nations seem to be. Not a single one of those that already have troops want to increase their numbers, and many seem to following Spain's lead in pulling out those already there.
The United States is quietly pressing its allies to send more troops to Iraq, but it's getting a lukewarm response amid escalating violence and public outcry over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Washington asked Albania to increase the size of its 71-soldier non-combat unit patrolling the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and the Albanian government is receptive, Defense Ministry spokesman Igli Hasani confirmed Friday.
``Albania is ready to respond to such a request'' and had already offered additional troops, Hasani said. He said the mostly Muslim country, a staunch U.S. ally, may boost its contingent to 200 soldiers if parliament approves.
Albania. If you've ever seen the movie "Wag the Dog" you may appreciate just how sad and ironic that is. Anyway, it's a useful overview of the current status of the so-called coalition. One thing that's increasingly clear is that even in those countries that seem ready to continue their commitment it's only the government that wants to do so. The people themselves, in virtually all countries around the world, seem resolutely against it.
Recent polls show that eight in 10 Hungarians oppose keeping the troops in Iraq. But the leadership won't budge, government spokesman J. Zoltan Gal said.
``This is not a government which adjusts its policies based on the result of opinion polls,'' he said.
That means that it is not a government that believes much in democracy. Most likely, as in Spain, that government will be replaced during the next election. And apparently, the elite which controls the government cares more about profiting from its relationship with the Americans than it does about the feelings or even the lives of its own people.
Arundhati Roy on the Indian elections.
In the
Guardian comment section, writer Arundhati Roy
reviews the results of the election in India, along with an overview of the very complicated political scene there.
What's especially interesting is her comments on the serious violations of civil rights there. Because of a long outdated anti-Communist bias, China is usually the Asian nation criticized for violations of civil rights, but it would appear that India may even be worse. Conditions in Kashmir are horrendous. And it would appear that torture and beating of prisoners is just as bad in India as it is in Iraq and other places.
Most western news reports on the country lately have focused on the growing economy. But she paints a much darker and less encouraging picture. In particular she describes how POTA, the Indian equivalent of America's Patriot Act, is, as in the US, being used to attack domestic political opponents and the poor more than it is being used to fight terrorism.
Recently, a young friend was talking to me about Kashmir. About the morass of political venality, the brutality of the security forces, the inchoate edges of a society saturated in violence, where militants, police, intelligence officers, government servants, businessmen and even journalists encounter each other, and gradually, over time, become each other. About having to live with the endless killing, the mounting "disappearances", the whispering, the fear, the rumours, the insane disconnection between what Kashmiris know is happening and what the rest of us are told is happening in Kashmir. He said: "Kashmir used to be a business. Now it's a mental asylum."
...
Many governments - state as well as centre; Congress, BJP, as well as regional parties - have used this climate of manufactured frenzy to mount an assault on human rights on a scale that would shame the world's better known despotic regimes.
In recent years, the number of people killed by the police and security forces runs into tens of thousands. Andhra Pradesh (neo-liberalism's poster state) chalks up an average of about 200 deaths of "extremists" in "encounters" every year. In Kashmir an estimated 80,000 people have been killed since 1989. Thousands have simply "disappeared".
According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared People in Kashmir, more than 2,500 people were killed in 2003. In the last 18 months there have been 54 deaths in custody. The Indian state's proclivity to harass and terrorise has been institutionalised by the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota). In Tamil Nadu, the act has been used to stifle criticism of the state government. In Jharkhand, 3,200 people, mostly poor adivasis (indigenous people) accused of being Maoists, have been named in Pota cases. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, the act is used to clamp down on those who protest about the dispossession of their land. In Gujarat and Mumbai, it is used almost exclusively against Muslims. In Gujarat, after the 2002 pogrom in which an estimated 2,000 Muslims were killed, 287 people were accused under Pota: 286 were Muslim and one a Sikh. Pota allows confessions extracted in police custody to be admitted as evidence. Under the Pota regime, torture tends to replace investigation in our police stations: that's everything from people being forced to drink urine, to being stripped, humiliated, given electric shocks, burned with cigarette butts and having iron rods put up their anuses, to being beaten to death.
Under Pota you cannot get bail unless you can prove that you are innocent - of a crime that you have not been formally charged with. It would be naive to imagine that Pota is being "misused". It is being used for precisely the reasons it was enacted. This year in the UN, 181 countries voted for increased protection of human rights. Even the US voted in favour. India abstained.
Meanwhile, economists cheering from the pages of corporate newspapers inform us that the GDP growth rate is phenomenal, unprecedented. Shops are overflowing with consumer goods. Government storehouses are overflowing with grain. Outside this circle of light, the past five years have seen the most violent increase in rural-urban income inequalities since independence. Farmers steeped in debt are committing suicide in hundreds; 40% of the rural population in India has the same foodgrain absorption level as sub-Saharan Africa, and 47% of Indian children under three suffer from malnutrition.
Anyway, it certainly is interesting that the people of India would make a strong shift to the left at this particular juncture in history. Ms. Roy sounds rather skeptical that it will make much difference. I certainly admire her continuing to tell it like it is. Last winter I posted a link to her essay,
We should consider ourselves at war, which was in response to developments in Iraq. It still seems rather relevant. Perhaps even more so.
May 13, 2004
"Kicking butt is mandatory."
John Barlow
posts a link to a very disturbing video of Americans in an Apache attack helicopter blowing away a few Iraqis, along with some comments.
The clip speaks for itself. The three Iraqis are vaporized without much of what might be called due process. Perhaps they actually were preparing to attack the Apache, but they seem far too languid to have thought themselves in combat, particularly against something as lethal as an Apache less than a hundred feet away. Had I been in their situation, I would have been far more eager to launch and split.
I can hear some of you snorting at my squeamishness. This is war, Buddy. Suck it up. But war has rules. Those who abide by them don't shoot the wounded, as we do in the clip. It's simply wrong.
It's also impractical. These three Iraqis almost certainly have family members who are now bound by inarguable duty to avenge their deaths. In this video you can see us planting the seeds of terrorist retributions that will bloom for years.
I couldn't agree with his conclusion more. The same as with the prison photos. It's not just that it's wrong; it's that it justifies attacks on Americans, and that it opens up cans of worms that will be open for decades to come. To put it very bluntly, it's STUPID.
By the way, the post title, "Kicking butt is mandatory. Taking names is optional." comes from a slogan the US Navy uses in recruitment. Nasty people, these guys. No sympathy whatsoever. Here's the
link to the video itself.
More shocking photos from Iraq.
The New York Post reports on the "shocking" photos shown to selected members of Congress yesterday. There are, of course, tons of articles on this subject. This one focuses on the sexual romps that the soldiers were engaged in while supposedly serving their country.
Shocking shots of sexcapades involving Pfc. Lynndie England were among the hundreds of X-rated photos and videos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shown to lawmakers in a top-secret Capitol conference room yesterday.
"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be consensual," said a lawmaker who saw the photos.
And, videos showed the disgraced soldier - made notorious in a photo showing her holding a leash looped around an Iraqi prisoner's neck - engaged in graphic sex acts with other soldiers in front of Iraqi prisoners, Pentagon officials told NBC Nightly News.
"Almost everybody was naked all the time," another lawmaker said.
...
"It was significantly worse than I had anticipated," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore). "Take the worst case and multiply it over several times."
The article notes that Private England, the woman in some of the most infamous photos, has been claiming that the photos showing her holding someone on a leash and so on were all done under strict orders. But these newest ones clearly show her voluntarily engaging in sexual activity, and, apparently, clearly relishing it.
It appears that they're going to try to prevent the release of these to the public. "Too disturbing to release" they claim. I know that the folks in Congress, not to mention the Defense Department, are out of touch with reality, but I can't believe that they seriously think that there's any chance that these photos won't make it out soon. Even if they don't do so officially, then someone, somewhere, will do it unofficially. You can count on it. You just can't hide that kind of thing any more.
Did you catch Rumsfeld's comments, in his recent
testimony to Congress, about how irritating it is to live in an age of digital cameras and video recorders.
We're functioning in a -- with peacetime restraints, with legal requirements in a war-time situation, in the information age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise, when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon.
Ha! There's so much to say about these. One thing though that they make very clear: the troops over there certainly have plenty of time on their hands. It'll be hard to justify demands for more troops when it would seem that those over there aren't spending much time fighting, but are just horsing around and indulging themselves.
Vonnegut explains America.
Via
Common Dreams, is this essay,
Cold Turkey , by esteemed American writer and philosopher Kurt Vonnegut, in which he explains our political system, the world we live in, why neither of those make any sense, our addiction to fossil fuels (what the title refers to), why we're here, and why there's nothing we can do about that, what the war on drugs is all about, and many other things which have probably long puzzled you. Yes, all in one essay.
As always he doesn't mince words. Here's how he begins.
Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.
But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
******
When you get to my age, if you get to my age, which is 81, and if you have reproduced, you will find yourself asking your own children, who are themselves middle-aged, what life is all about. I have seven kids, four of them adopted.
Many of you reading this are probably the same age as my grandchildren. They, like you, are being royally shafted and lied to by our Baby Boomer corporations and government.
I put my big question about life to my biological son Mark. Mark is a pediatrician, and author of a memoir, The Eden Express. It is about his crackup, straightjacket and padded cell stuff, from which he recovered sufficiently to graduate from Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: “Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.” So I pass that on to you. Write it down, and put it in your computer, so you can forget it.
I guess that's really it: we're here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is. Sometimes that's hard to remember. But now it's in my computer, as he advises, so if you ever forget you know where you can come read it and be reminded.
Oh, and he says our addiction to fossil fuel is about to come back to haunt us. That we're about to go "Cold Turkey." Personally, I have to disagree with that one. I think the end of the fossil fuel age, or even just substantially higher prices for oil, will cause us to break through to a new age of cleaner and better and cheaper energy. That it won't be a disaster at all, but a blessing in disguise. But we shall see.
And I also have to disagree with that nonsense about the Baby Boomer corporations. As far as I can see our system, political and economic, was set up by his generation, the so-called Greatest Generation, which I personally consider to be the Worst Ever. But his generation loves blaming other people for their problems. It's their hobby I guess. But the Baby Boomers (god, how I hate that phrase) actually tried very hard to change it. But the old folks wouldn't listen.
On that same note, I have to say something else. I'm 51, been in America all of these years, and hearing the "Greatest Generation" complain about things all of that time. And I honestly can't recall even hearing any member of that generation come right out and admit that they were wrong about anything. Not one single solitary time. That includes my parents and everyone else of that age. And not just those on the right either. But folks like Kesey and Kerouac too, also part of that generation. For whatever reason these people just are incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions and of facing up to the truth. Like Vonnegut, they always look for someone else to blame. Always.
But who am I to contradict someone who's sold so many books? Mostly to the Baby Boomers themselves, now that I think about it. And call me an incurable optimist if you must, but I think that there's at least "one chance in hell" for America to pull it together. Maybe even more than that. Low odds I admit, but nothing lasts forever. America too shall pass, and whatever comes after it will be better.
Howard Dean's Dozen.
Got an email from Howard Dean, who has been working to help encourage and elect local democratic candidates since his own campaign ended. Have to say that this is the way to do it. The media and their cult of celebrity focus on Bush and Kerry and such, but local power is what democracy is all about. So many people seem to be focusing on getting rid of Bush. But that won't make any difference if the Democrats don't have support and power in local communities, the states, and the Congress. Which is what this is all about.
Kerry isn't much, if any, better than Bush. At least as far as I can see. He's a corporate flack and warmonger all the way. If he's going to do anything to improve things, it will only be if he's constantly pushed to do so by grassroots politicians from around the country.
Anyway, here's Dean's email.
Several months ago I put out a call to the hundreds of thousands of
grassroots activists who had worked on my campaign to run for office
themselves. Hundreds of volunteers answered this call. Our new
organization - Democracy for America - is dedicated to using its
resources to support those candidates in their fight to take our
country back from the right-wing conservatives who dominate our
government. Today, Democracy for America announces the Dean Dozen -
twelve diverse candidates that represent the spirit of grassroots
democracy. These will be tough races, and not all of the Dean
Dozen may win. However, they will all spread the message that to
change America progressives must compete.
These twelve candidates will be followed by hundreds of additional
candidates in the next few months.
No incumbents are on the initial Dean Dozen, though Democracy for
America will be announcing its support of incumbent candidates soon.
The Dean Dozen are:
Mary Ann Andreas for State Assembly in California. The 80th Assembly
District has some of the highest unemployment rates in California, so
it's all about jobs for Mary Ann in her race against the Republican
incumbent.
www.andreasforassembly.com.
Ken Campbell for South Carolina State House. A Dean inspired candidate!
Oconee County has a chance to put a real community activist and small
business owner to work with Ken Campbell.
www.takebackoconee.com.
Maria Chappelle-Nadal for Missouri State House. Maria has won the
support of the grassroots in this race. Democracy for America is
behind her in her campaign to take back the State House for Democrats.
www.maria2004.com.
Scott Clark, Mark Manoil & Nina Trasoff for the Arizona Corporation
Commission. The Corporation Commission is a watchdog agency protecting
consumers from fraud and corporate abuse. Clark, Manoil & Trasoff
became politically active on the Dean campaign and are running as a
ticket for the commission. If you live in Arizona and can help them
get on the ballot, contact them by email here:
corpcomm04@hotmail.com.
Kim Hynes for State Representative in Connecticut. 28 Republican state
representatives in Connecticut ran unopposed in the last election. We
won't take our country back if we don't compete. Kim is doing her part.
You too can get involved.
kimhynes.smartcampaigns.com.
Richard Morrison for United States House of Representatives from Texas.
Want to get rid of Tom DeLay? Here's your chance. Morrison is hitting
back at "The Hammer" by competing against him in the Texas 22nd. Join
me and get involved in the fight today.
www.richardmorrisonfordistrict22.com.
Barack Obama for United States Senate from Illinois. In the race to
regain control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats have few better chances to
pick up a seat than in Illinois. DFA volunteers all over Illinois
helped Obama win his primary, now it's time to help him win the general.
Stay tuned: I will be on the trail with Barack soon.
www.obamaforillinois.com.
Rob MacKenna for Hillsborough County (Florida) Supervisor of Elections.
Rob is a computer programmer and is fighting to add a voter-verifiable
paper trail to the touch-screen voting machines in the largest swing
county in the all-important state of Florida!
www.rob2004.com.
Monica Palacios-Boyce for Massachusetts State Representative. Inspired
by my race for the White House, Monica launched her campaign
for state representative when she learned that the Republican incumbent
had faced no opposition in his last two elections.
www.monicaforstaterep.com.
Lori Saldana for State Assembly in California. After an upset victory
in the primary, grassroots activists want Lori to win in her race for
the environment, education, economy and community of San Diego.
www.lorisaldana.com.
Jeff Smith for United States House of Representatives from Missouri.
Campaigning in a 10-way primary for the opportunity to fill retiring
Representative Richard Gephardt's seat in Congress, Jeff is an
articulate young progressive running an energetic grassroots field
campaign that - with your help - could surprise the pundits.
www.jeffsmith2004.com.
Donna Red Wing for Colorado House District #25. After serving as the
GLBT Field Advisor for the Dean for America campaign, Donna has
returned to the mountains of Colorado to mobilize progressive
activists in communities across her district.
www.donnaredwing.com.
This year the race for the presidency is unbelievably important. But
beside our efforts to evict George W. Bush from the White House, we
must expand the base of the Democratic Party by competing in tough
races across the country. The Dean Dozen represent some of the
bravest candidates in the nation. Democracy for America is proud to
support them.
May 12, 2004
No, 3,000 Americans didn't die on 9/11.
Via
BoingBoing, is this choice comment from so-called Democrat Joe Lieberman, made during Rumsfeld's
testimony to Congress last week.
LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, the behavior by Americans at the prison in Iraq is, as we all acknowledge, immoral, intolerable and un-American. It deserves the apology that you have given today and that have been given by others in high positions in our government and our military.
I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologized.
What's wrong with this? Well, 3,000 Americans were not killed on 9/11. There were people from over 80 nations killed that day, including many Muslims. I think the total of Americans was just over 2,000 or so. (I'm not sure.) But once again they are attempting to rewrite history, to use this so-called War on Terror to justify their own agenda, an agenda that has nothing to do with fighting terror. And Lieberman knows this very well, and is just lying.
And I have to object to this idea that an "apology" means something, or is even close to being enough to deal with the problem. These were, and are, criminal acts. And need to be prosecuted as such. Since when can criminals escape prosecution just because they "apologized"???
And furthermore, there seems to be an idea that just because people from other nations have also done bad things, that that seems to imply that Americans don't have to be responsible for their actions. What nonsense. Have you ever heard of a criminal in court escaping prosecution on the grounds that someone else committed worse crimes?
These people (and I include Democrats such as Lieberman, and Kerry as well, now that I think about it), aren't "sorry" about what happened. Not in the least. They're just sorry that they got caught. Their so-called "apologies" are just something they're using to draw attention from the fact that none of the high-ranking officers accused have been arrested, and as a way to divert further action and prosecutions.
Number of US lifers grows to 128,000.
In the shortest news article I've ever seen, the Scotsman
reports on the number of lifers and other prisoners in US prisons.
THE number of inmates serving life sentences in United States jails has risen by 83 per cent since 1992 and now account for one out of every 11 prisoners.
A report yesterday put the number of "lifers" at almost 128,000, out of a total of 2.2 million people behind bars.
This isn't a quote from the article. It's the entire thing. I guess sometimes words just aren't enough.
Doctors Without Borders seeking help.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is seeking help for the growing crisis in the Sudan and in Chad, where most of the Sudanese refugees are going. See the article on their website
here. I guess they need help in lots of places, but this is the current priority.
Despite announcements of forthcoming aid, assistance is utterly inadequate. Mobilization of aid efforts is slow and the few organizations operating in Darfur cannot meet the full range of needs. As a result, few of the estimated 600,000-800,000 people displaced by violence in Darfur are receiving food assistance. Furthermore, shelters and drinking water are in very short supply and access to medical care is extremely limited.
Analysis of Bush's speech honoring Rumsfeld.
On Monday, Bush made a speech honoring Donald Rumsfeld, and saying what a great job he's been doing, and how the nation owes him a debt of gratitude. Which is quite amazing, given that his actions have clearly and unmistakably endangered the lives of all Americans, and will for quite a long time to come.
Professor Juan Cole, an historian of the middle east, whose weblog
Informed Comment is an invaluable source of objective information and perspective on the issues, offers up an in-depth
analysis of the speech, documenting sentence by sentence just how dishonest and inaccurate it is. I especially like his summary. (Quote sections are from Bush.)
"We believe that democracy will allow these gifts to flourish, that freedom is the answer to hopelessness and terror, that a free Iraq will lead the way to a new and better Middle East and that a free Iraq will make our country more secure . . . "
So far American-ruled Iraq has been the biggest black eye for democracy since the Reichstag fire. And, the photographs now circulating of prisoner torture are the biggest recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and other anti-American terrorism that Bin Laden could ever have hoped for. The US occupation of Iraq has been so incompetently handled that it has made all Americans less secure by an order of magnitude.
"END"
Unfortunately that isn't true, either. This is only the beginning, and not of anything good.
There is a complete
transcript of Bush's speech available from the Washington Post.
In a way though, Rumsfeld actually "has" done the US a great service. He's helped make it quite clear to almost everyone around the world just what American values really are, what their intentions really are, and just how dangerous they really are.
May 09, 2004
Happy Mothers' Day.
The original Mother's Day Proclamation by
Julia Ward Howe.
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
"Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.
"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devasted earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace,
And each bearing after her own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
End of entries. ( ) ( )
