Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

I came across an article in the Washington Post about the methods of torture employed by the US Government and how they skirt provisions in our laws to get away with torture.

Free from the scrutiny of military lawyers steeped in the international laws of war, the CIA and its intelligence service allies have the leeway to exert physically and psychologically aggressive techniques, said national security officials and U.S. and European intelligence officers.

Although no direct evidence of mistreatment of prisoners in U.S. custody has come to light, the prisoners are denied access to lawyers or organizations, such as the Red Cross, that could independently assess their treatment. Even their names are secret.

This month, the U.S. military announced that it had begun a criminal investigation into the handling of two prisoners who died in U.S. custody at the Bagram base. A base spokesman said autopsies found one of the detainees died of a pulmonary embolism, the other of a heart attack. …

According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often “softened up” by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner’s resistance.

The take-down teams often “package” prisoners for transport, fitting them with hoods and gags, and binding them to stretchers with duct tape.

Bush administration appointees and career national security officials acknowledged that, as one of them put it, “our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath.” Another said U.S. personnel are scrupulous in providing medical care to captives, adding in a deadpan voice, that “pain control [in wounded patients] is a very subjective thing.” …

Jordan is a favored country for renditions, several U.S. officials said. The Jordanians are considered “highly professional” interrogators, which some officials said meant that they do not use torture. But the State Department’s 2001 human rights report criticized Jordan and its General Intelligence Directorate for arbitrary and unlawful detentions and abuse.

“The most frequently alleged methods of torture include sleep deprivation, beatings on the soles of the feet, prolonged suspension with ropes in contorted positions and extended solitary confinement,” the 2001 report noted. Jordan also is known to use prisoners’ family members to induce suspects to talk.

The Voice of America is really disgraceful. The propaganda is so thinly concealed in their unsigned ‘editorials’ which are probably written by entire committees of psyops personnel. For example, in an ‘editorial’, 12/19/02 – STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS IN IRAN – Editorial #0-10321:

The protests reflect the growing impatience of the people of Iran. They want genuine democracy, not a regime manipulated by reactionary clerics. Hard-line Islamists are a minority in Iran’s parliament. But they control the police, the judiciary, and the Guardian Council. And no act of parliament can become law without the council’s approval.

Or, maybe the growing impatience of the US government? And, the choice of words: reactionary, genuine democracy (Iran is at least now a Republic in name. This is doubly ironic since the US supported the prior authoritarian government under the Shah)

Results of recent elections demonstrated that the people of Iran want political reform and an end to repression. A poll found that nearly seventy-five percent of Iranians favored dialogue with the United States.

What poll? Who funded it?

The demand for political reform is not only being made in the streets, but in the parliament as well. Rajabali Mazrouei [rah-jah-bah-lee mahz-roo-ee], leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, told fellow members of parliament: “If you believe people support you, then let’s hold a referendum and allow people to determine [their] fate.”

Sure, everyone knows elections are never manipulated or gamed. It happened here, it can certainly happen in Iran. I’m sure the Iranian government is pretty undemocratic. That’s one of the problems with mixing church and state. Religious authority is used for political purposes. That’s just another reason why we should not be funding so-called faith-based initiatives.

The U.S. stands with the people of Iran in their quest for freedom, civil liberties, prosperity, judicial due process, and the rule of law. Iranian officials are fully aware that these calls are genuine and come directly from the hearts of their own citizens. The U.S. looks to the Iranian government to be accountable to its people and respect their aspirations for freedom.

A tad hypocritical in a time where our own government has abrogated many such ‘civil liberties’, freedoms explicitly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution.

I saw this article today about an American soldier being killed in Afghanistan.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — An American soldier died of gunshot wounds after suspected al Qaeda militants fired on a patrol unit in eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of Saturday morning, the U.S. military said.

Ok, what exactly makes an Al Quaeda militant? I’m really frustrated that more actual information isn’t given in the news. Has Al Quaeda just become this umbrella name for any Muslim or Arab who opposes the American government? Americans who send money to Islamic charities who oppose Israel are considered Al Quaeda. Afghans who want independence from the US are labeled Al Quaeda. Do we know for a fact that Al Quaeda even exists? If so, how do we know? The word itself means simply, “the base” or “the foundation” which is insanely vague. How can we trust what we’re being told? The truth is we cannot. The only thing we can know for certain is that the World Trade Center collapsed after two planes flew into it. Everything else is smoke and fog.

Iraq claims U.S. tampered with report: Although in Qatar during a news conference, Rumsfeld said the US got the report first because the UN wanted them to duplicate it. Does the UN not have xerox machines? Yea, I’m not buying this.

PARAMETERS: The US Army War College Quarterly has a new Winter 2002 Issue. Some good articles to check out. You know if they quote Machiavelli at the head of the article that it’s going to be tasty.

Now that Iraq has released a 12,000 page document the US suddenly doesn’t want to present any evidence it says it has. Where is the evidence and why is the Bush syndicate scared to share the information? Simple answer, the US government is lying through its proverbial teeth. Props to Iraq for playing the politics game with equal if not more adept skill than the legions of professional liars in the Bush administration.

US withholds weapons data from inspectors:

The Bush administration has told United Nations inspectors that it will not provide them with intelligence information on suspected weapons sites in Iraq, as agreed in the UN resolution on inspections, until it examines the weapons declaration Baghdad has submitted.

The comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and one of the two senior inspectors, reflects growing tension between the inspectors, along with some other members of the Security Council, and the White House as inspections have begun and visible US preparations for war continue.

Both Dr ElBaradei and chief UN inspector Hans Blix have expressed consternation over the increasing US insistence that it has firm evidence that Iraq is lying when it says it has no weapons of mass destruction, while at the same time refusing to share that evidence with the inspectors – as Mr Bush pledged to do.

From Telegraph, UK:

The German government yesterday announced sweeping cuts in its defence spending in a move that will infuriate Nato and hamper plans to reshape the army for modern warfare.

The defence minister, Peter Struck, said the German army, air force and navy had to make drastic cuts in equipment and slim down their organisational structures to save resources.

I really hate Bush and everything he represents. Stupidity, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, arrogance, deceit. Hate is too strong a word, but I am bothered and disgusted by the way in which this man and his cronies have planned and plotted this war we are about to start. A war against a weak and poor nation whose despotic leader we supported for decades. A war that has been in the works for who knows how long, at least a long time before ‘9-11’. A war by a group of bullies who lead a credulous people into believing that what they do is right and proper and justified instead of being honest that we want something they have.

We are about to commit murder. The taxes we funnel into this criminal enterprise will be used to destroy human beings. People who want nothing more than to keep on waking up every day. Some of our own people may even die. Although, I don’t see the difference in value between an American life and an Iraqi life. How can we pretend to cherish life and freedom while supporting murderers of people?

If I believed in a just God I would pray for something unlawful, but I’m not even sure that prayer, that act of thought crime, if granted would do much if anything to change things. As long as people can be deceived by a worthless fraud of a man nothing will change. As long as we value the life of an American over the life of another human being nothing will change. What can we offer this world if we are nothing but bullies and cowards?

Related:

Our interests are not served by oppressing an entire people. Now we’re spreading out into other parts of Afghanistan not controlled by the American warlord ‘President’ Hamid Karzai.

US plans security enclaves in dozen Afghan cities: Report:

The Pentagon has decided to create security enclaves in a dozen or so Afghan cities instead of being confined to Kabul in order to let American military and aid officials operate safely in the war-ravaged country.

US engineers, diplomats and aid workers protected by American and British troops will deploy this month in Gardez in Eastern Afghanistan to set up the first of several enclaves intended as hubs for reconstruction efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, some State Department officials suggested that if successful in Afghanistan, the approach could be used in Iraq in the event of a regime change there.