A brave dove: "I just want to get it done, come home, and continue my life." Those were just about the last words that Gennaro Pellegrini, Jr. — a 31-year-old Philly cop and up-and-coming boxer — said to us when we spoke last last November. In less than 48 hours, Pellegrini was about to step onto an airplane bound for … Read More
Quote Of The Day
Maureen Dowd, speaking tongue-in-cheek about Cindy Sheehan, the 48-year-old mother of a dead U.S. soldier, who says she will camp out in the dusty heat near Bush’s ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq: If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could … Read More
Gandhi In Crawford
If you are not following the story of Cindy Sheehan, the bereaved mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, you ought to be. She’s set up camp outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas (where Bush is taking a record-breaking long vacation), hoping just to meet him and ask him questions. And you should be reading her diaries at … Read More
Most Americans Feel More Vulnerable
USA Today: WASHINGTON — American attitudes toward the war in Iraq continue to sour in the wake of last week’s surge in U.S. troop deaths, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows. (Related: Poll results) An unprecedented 57% majority say the war has made the USA more vulnerable to terrorism. A new low, 34%, say it has made the country safer. The … Read More
Phelps Again
Fred Phelps and his minions are at it again. He intends to picket the funeral of Sgt. Christopher Taylor, a Marine who died in Iraq. Why? Because the military isn’t homophobic enough for Phelps, or because Phelps’ god (allegedly) hates fags, or something… Friday, about 15 members of the group — some of them children — picketed the funeral of … Read More
Update: The Downing Street Memos
The reporter who broke the Downing Street Memo (DSM) in the London Times, Michael Smith, has filed this important piece in Raw Story (bold text is my emphasis): Britain and America’s reasons for stepping up bombing of Iraq in the ten months leading up to the war in Iraq was a sham, official figures released by the British Ministry of … Read More
We Let Bin Laden Slip Away
Newsweek has the exclusive story: Aug. 15, 2005 issue – During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn’t choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. … Read More
It’s Constantinople, Not Istanbul
GWOT (the global war on terror) became GSAVE (the global struggle against violent extremism) only a week ago. Now it’s back to GWOT: GRAPEVINE, Tex., Aug. 3 – President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at … Read More
Sleeping Bag Interrogation
Here’s another example of why torture doesn’t work: Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush … Read More
The Never-Ending “Last” Throes
Seven Marines on Monday. Fourteen marines on Tuesday. This is insane. Among the carnage is the sad story of Steven Vincent, a freelance journalist. We wrote an op-ed piece which appeared in the New York Times last Sunday, entitled “Switched Off in Basra”. It told of how the police in Basra, who are supposedly on our side, are mostly comprised … Read More
Watch This Story
This story caught my eye: WASHINGTON, July 31 – The Central Intelligence Agency was told by an informant in the spring of 2001 that Iraq had abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program, but the agency did not share the information with other agencies or with senior policy makers, a former C.I.A. officer has charged. In a lawsuit … Read More
Word Choice
As we all know by now, George Orwell Bush has deemed that the “war on terror” be renamed the “struggle against violent extremism”, so that history will not depict him as losing a war, but engaging in a struggle. I’m not sure it gets him where he wants to be. After all, Mein Kampf translates to “my struggle”. And the … Read More
US Military Throws A Lifeline To Terrorists?
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today rejected calls to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying that would be a “mistake” because it would send a “lifeline to terrorists." – Washington Post, June 23, 2005 Pentagon officials have provided little detail in discussing the possible withdrawal of forces from Iraq. The most specific estimate has … Read More
It Was A Summary Execution
Mark Honigsbaum Thursday July 28, 2005 The Guardian Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday. Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, … Read More
Kerry Was Right; Bush Was Wrong
. . . about the “war on terror” "I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It’s an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement, public-diplomacy effort. And we’re putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight." — John Kerry, April 13, … Read More