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| 2005/9/28-10/3 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39913 Activity:nil |
9/28 http://csua.org/u/djq (andrewsullivan.com) Re CPT Fishback "[Rumsfeld said:] 'Either break him or destroy him, and do it quickly.' ... The scapegoating of retarded underlings like Lynndie England is an attempt to deflect real responsibility for the new pro-torture policies that go all the way to the White House." |
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| csua.org/u/djq -> www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_09_25_dish_archive.html#112792195691540296 revelation that US soldiers were posting pictures of mutilated corpses of dead Iraqis on a website in order to get free access to amateur porn? It was clearl y a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and a horrifying insight into t he culture that has been allowed to percolate in the military in Iraq. A fter this blog and others raised the alarm, there was an investigation. It's done now: The Army Criminal Investigation Command in Iraq conducted the preliminar y inquiry within the past week but closed it after concluding no felony crime had been committed and failing to determine whether US soldier s were responsible for the photos and whether they showed actual war de ad, Army officials said. Joe Curtin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said there currently was no formal investigation into the matter. Decisions like this send a further message to the troops. A nd we wonder why the allegations of abuse and torture keep coming. If th e military spent an ounce of the effort they are now deploying to break the will of Ian Fishback on ridding the military of men who violate the Geneva Conventions, we might get somewhere. But just remember who ultima tely sets the tone for the military: the Pentagon and the White House. Unbeknownst to the volunteers, the test s ubject was part of the experiment, and would scream out in mock pain whe never the voltage was applied. Many of the volunteers were in anguish wh en applying the voltage, but the calm and authoritative demeanor of the test director influenced them to do things they otherwise would find unc onscionable. Many of us teach this test case to our aspiring officers to illustrate ho w susceptible we all are to the influence of others, especially when tho se others are respected and influential members in our national security and military command structures. This is why senior leadership must giv e clear and unambiguous direction and intent; a break in procedure will permeate the command structure if allowed to go unchecked, especially wh en it appears to be condoned by leadership. This is why we also study in dividuals such as Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson of My Lai, a man who pos sessed the moral courage to stand up to his fellow soldiers in order to protect the innocent, and who later experienced the approbation that Fis hback is receiving today. We in the military do teach the ethics, moral responsibility and personal accountability that by all reporting appear to be demonstrated by Capta in Fishback today. Obviously teaching these things is far easier than de monstrating them, which makes this instance all the more noteworthy sinc e the intervening support and command structures appear to be aligned ag ainst him. We should recognize the great physical and moral courage it t akes for Fishback to speak out, as well as the apparent failures of thos e higher up to act with similar moral courage." So are his two fello w soldiers who backed him up, although they were too scared to give thei r names. I've been reliably informed that the military brass have now un covered their identity and are applying the same pressure to them as the y are to Fishback. EMAIL OF THE DAY II: "Please keep using your voice to defend Ian Fishback . I didn't know him personally at West Point, but I can tell you this: h e had a reputation as being a very up-right, by-the-book kind of guy. If someone like him is saying torture happened, then it did. A West Pointe r like Fishback would rather die than dishonor himself by lying. Besides , what possible motive could he have for doing what he is doing other th an the desire to right a wrong? If he is attacked by the DoD political h acks and the generals don't stick up for him, then I'm afraid whatever s crap of integrity is left in the system is gone. I sent him an encouragi ng email below - I don't know if that email address is public or not (ma king it public might not be smart). EMAIL OF THE DAY III: "Looks like we can expect a post at National Review Online's Corner about every 90 seconds on the Delay indictment for the foreseeable future. But still zero about Fishback and the appalling reve lations about the official policy of torture and its systemic pervasiven ess, and the heights to which it rises in the administration. Says somet hing about the culture over there, and about the fact that at this point it's just impossible to defend the administration at all on the torture issue." A reader alerts me to another moment when Janov sky's far-left bias affected his reporting. From this blog on November 1 8, 2002: "An article on Thursday about comments on the midterm elections made at a political forum by Karl Rove, the Bush administration's chief politic al strategist, misstated the question to which he responded, "I'm more concerned about the 3,000 who died on 9/11." The questioner had asked w hether he was concerned about 200,000 people who she said marched in Wa shington against a war with Iraq not about concerns that 200,000 innoce nt Iraqis might die in an American-led invasion." Here's the original: "The audience included several doze n protesters who held signs critical of various issues, including war a gainst Iraq. In the questio n-and-answer session, a woman politely asked Mr Rove if the administra tion was concerned over the possibility that 200,000 innocent Iraqis mi ght die in an American-led invasion. If he was, how on earth did he hear something that simply wasn't asked? Some of these Times li berals don't just have blinders on, they wear ear-plugs. Quickie question: is there any doubt from his reporting that Janovsky pas sionately opposes the Iraq war? money -laundering scheme of sorts to circumvent Texas electoral laws: The indictment charges that DeLay entered "into an agreement" with Colya ndro and Ellis to circumvent the state's ban on corporate contributions by arranging for the donations to be sent first to an arm of the Repub lican National Committee in Washington, and then back to Republican can didates in Texas named on a written list prepared in Texas. According to the indictment, DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis conspired to mak e a political contribution in violation of the Texas Election Code for the benefit of candidates for the Texas House of Representatives. Colya ndro formerly directed the Texans for a Republican Majority Political A ction Committee, known as TRMPAC. I guess the law is designed to prevent corporate buying of electoral cand idates, so you can see why someone like DeLay would want to get around i t Of course, I'm reserving judgment on the ultimate verdict, and DeLay deserves the benefit of being regarded as innocent before being found gu ilty. But I will say this: there is a clear stench of corruption coming from the Republican power-structure in Washington. With their incoh erent big-spending policies already exposing them as conservative frauds , and with each day finding another ethical problem with the GOP leaders hip, the conditions are ripe for a Democratic come-back in 2006. The onl y question is whether the Democrats are still too pathetic to take advan tage of this. O'FLANIGAN, TORTURE-ENABLER: Below, you'll find the role of Timothy E Fl anigan in devising the policies that led to the systematic use of abuse and torture in the US military in Iraq. That alone should bar him from being anywhere near the Justice Department. What is now being done to the hero, Captain Ian Fishba ck, who braved 17 months of obstruction, threats and intimidation by mil itary brass to keep quiet, is a national disgrace. Fishback has now been sequestered at Fort Bragg under orders restricting his contacts (the pr etext is that he is a key witness in a criminal investigation and that h e should not be in contact with outsiders while it continues). My source s tell me that he has been subjected to a series of long, arduous interr ogations by CID investigators. Predictably, the CID guys are out to find just one thing: they want to know the identities of his two or three NC O corroborators. The CID folks are apparently indifferent to the account s of wrongdoing - telling him repeatedly not to waste their time with hi s stories. Fishback knows ... |
| andrewsullivan.com Friday, October 29, 2004 SO HE'S ALIVE II: Some of you have had the opposite reaction to the OBL t ape. Here's a typical email: Kerry's sharpest critique is that we have not done enough kill or captur e bin Laden. Seeing bin Laden alive and well reinforces--to me at least --that the president has not done his job. Because I had no reason to b elieve that bin Laden was dead before this video, seeing him now doesn' t make me more afraid of him or of an attack. And rather that making me recall good feelings about the president in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I am filled with renewed emotions of disappointment in him. Reme mber: Bush is the one that said he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" and that he "can ran but not hide." Although I suspect it will help Bush a lot, my hope is that it will have no effect either way. I don't w ant that murderous bastard to have any say on what this democracy decide s I just hope that whoever gets elected next Tuesday manages to find an d kill him. The parroting of idiotic Michael Moore points was a little pathetic for an alleged spiritual mastermind. And the re-calibration of the rationale for 9/11 - again retroactively talking of Palestinians - was the usual vile opportunism. Any reminder of the 9 /11 attacks will provoke a national rallying to the commander-in-chief. The deep emotional bond so many of us formed with the president back the n is Bush's strongest weapon in this election, and OBL has just revived it. I have a feeling that this will tip the election decisively toward the incumbent. A few hours ago, I thought Ker ry was headed for victory. I also have a sinki ng feeling that that was entirely bin Laden's objective. surprising supporters for the president amng Ara b regimes. Money quote: The Iraq quagmire may also explain why Hasan Rowhani and some other Iran ian officials (though not, by any means, all of them) would like Bush t o have a second term. So long as the US is bogged down in Iraq, it cann ot seriously contemplate toppling the regime in Iran - or, for that mat ter, in Syria. Prospects for the US remaining bogged down look rather b etter under Bush than Kerry. take on the election: Someone asked me the other day why I supported President Bush, "aside fr om the family thing" as he put it. I said I was supporting him because I thought he understood The Issue at stake better than anyone alive. And that he was on the right side of that issue from day one and every day thereafter. And tha t he was devoted to committing this nation to a course of offensive eng agement with the terror apparatus that might, just might, save us all h ere in the United States. The issue, of course, is the fight against Al Qaeda, its associates, enablers and like-mindeds. The President Bush I read about in the papers and the newsweeklies and t he blogs bears almost no resemblance to the President Bush I know and v isit with from time to time. He is decent and honest and true, which cannot be said of man y of his critics. Because over-riding everything is the issue and on this iss ue President Bush has been steadfast and strong and right as rain, whil e his opponent has rambled and waffled and weaseled every which way. Our enemies will brace for four more years of hell if Bush is re-elected . As I've said before, it's a choice between incompetenc e and irresolution. The question we have to ask is: can we afford four m ore years like the last one, when our enemies foiled us in Iraq, when ou r intelligence fell apart, when our moral standing was undermined, and w hen our president seemed unable even to recognize difficulties, let alon e fix them? Bush is a gambl e whose recent performance is execrable. I begrudge no one an honest dec ision, and I won't be heartbroken by either result. Money quo te: I was 24 years old when my mother, through a series of mishaps, found ou t I was gay. My mother came over to where I worked, screaming, and told me I was "dead" to the family. For more than five years after that day, I heard nothing from my family. No birthday cards, no invitations to Christmas or Thanksgiving events. It wasn't just the loss of my immediate family that was difficult, but the loss of my extended family as well. Since my mother refused to be in the same room with me, it forced my aunts and uncles to choose sides . I have not been to a family reunion in more than a decade. There you have the anti-family agenda of the religious right. By next wee k, they will have passed bans on any protections for gay couples in eigh t states. report on the widespread failure to secure muni tions sites in Iraq: Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with te ns of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained ungua rded, according to two US aid workers who say they reported looting o f the site to US military officials. Ricardo S Sanchez, the highe st ranking Army officer in Iraq in October 2003 but were told that the United States did not have enough troops to seal off the facility, whic h included more than 60 bunkers packed with munitions. "We were outraged," said Wes Hare, city manager of La Grande, who was wo rking in Iraq as part of a rebuilding program. A colleague who also vis ited the depot, Jerry Kuhaida, said it appeared that the explosives at the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area had found their way to insurgents targeting US forces. "There's no question in my mind that the stuff in Ukhaider was used by t errorists," said Kuhaida. But i f you didn't believe there would be an insurgency, why would you guard t hese dumps? There weren't enough troops to maintain order, let alone sec ure hundreds of sites. You can see the logic for the administration's po sition. Th e Miami Herald's Jim Defede concludes: According to the Herald poll, done by Zogby International, Kerry is posi tioned to win Miami-Dade by anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 votes. A ma rgin that large in Florida's most populous county would be hard for Bus h to make up across the rest of the state. Now I realize if the poll's margin of error were to fall in the presiden t's favor, Kerry would beat Bush, 53 to 46 percent (instead of 56-43). But even then, because of new voters, Kerry would still walk away with 50,000 more votes than Bush. Between 2000 and 2004, the split between Democrats and Republican is virtually the same in almost every category... The one group that is ra dically different -- and it is why the poll makes sense -- is a shift a mong non-Cuban Hispanics, who are backing Kerry almost two-to-one. M unitions found in April have the IAEA seal about as solid a proof possib le that they had not been removed before the war. On Aaron Brown last ni ght, David Kay confirmed it, calling it "Game, set and match". Money quote from ABC: Experts who have studied the images say the barrels on the tape contain the high explosive HMX, and the universal markings on the barrels are c lear that these are highly dangerous explosives. "I talked to a former inspector who's a colleague of mine, and he confirmed that, indeed, the se pictures look just like what he remembers seeing inside those bunker s," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and Int ernational Security in Washington. The barrels were found inside sealed bunkers, which American soldiers ar e seen on the videotape cutting through. Inspectors from the Internatio nal Atomic Energy Agency sealed the bunkers where the explosives were k ept just before the war began. "The fact that there's a photo of what looks like an IAEA seal means that what's behind those doors is HM X They only sealed bunkers that had HMX in them." After the bunkers were opened, the 101st was not ordered to secure the f acility. A senior officer told ABC News the division would not have had nearly enough soldiers to do so. What we're seeing is the slow exposure of the reality of th e Iraq war. Tommy Franks last night: "Now, I'll tel l you, I don't know Senator Kerry's plan for victory. I don't know what it is, but I do know -- but I do know that his criticism of military conduct of our global war on terrorism denigrates, disrespects our troops." Is Franks saying tha... |