This is Andrew Card telling GWB, on 9/11, about the plane crashing into the World Trade Center. What is remarkable is that Bush had this look for a FULL SEVEN MINUTES before he did anything. Instead, he continued to read to schoolchildren. Many of us have seen the footage of Bush just sitting there, and it is pretty condemning. Hopefully, … Read More
Gingko Trees?
Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online shows what a total imbecile he is in this article. The nut says, in a nutshell, that the Geneva Convention is like a contract. And since al Qaeda didn’t sign the contract, the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to them. Which means, he says, we should be able to torture AQ. Goldberg’s words: If you … Read More
Monty Python . . . and the Holy Torture Memos
Python Terry Jones is no stranger to the absurd. I guess that why he is able to provide an excellent legal explanation (in layman’s terms) of what the torture memos say, and in doing so, pointing out how silly they are. "Silly" if they weren’t so serious, that is. Terry Jones.
9/11 Commision — “No Credible Evidence” of Iraq-al Qaeda Link
“You can’t distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror”. – George Bush, September 2002 (from here) Speak for yourself, George. The rest of us — those with a brain, intellectual curiosity, and a desire to be scrupulously accurate — can see some pretty important distinctions.
Today’s WH Press Gaggle
Q Can I ask about Vice President Cheney, because yesterday he repeated what is a very controversial claim. He said that Saddam Hussein had long-established ties with al Qaeda. Does the President believe that Saddam Hussein had long-established ties with al Qaeda? MR. McCLELLAN: We certainly talked about the ties with terrorism between the — between the regime that was … Read More
Hold On To Your Hats . . .
The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly. . . . "There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses," said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New … Read More
Torture Memos
More on the torture memos. On this blog, I have been focussing on the Draft Walker Group Memo, but of course, there are others. Discourse.net has a good analysis of the Bybee Memo. It also has a good analysis of the Draft Walker Group Memo. Although, really, all you need to know is that both memos consider torture to be … Read More
Torture Scandel Just Keeps Getting Worse
From here The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, issued a classified order last November directing military guards to hide a prisoner, later dubbed "Triple X" by soldiers, from Red Cross inspectors and keep his name off official rosters. The disclosure, by military sources, is the first indication that Sanchez was directly involved in efforts to hide … Read More
Andrew Sullivan Tells It Like It Is
Conservative-Except-When-It-Comes-To-Gay-Issues, Brit-American, and Bush-Excusing pundit Andrew Sullivan is getting more ornery these days . . . and about Iraq. Here’s what he recently wrote: Take the case of Specialist Sean Baker. He was permanently wounded by other U.S. soldiers in a simulated exercize [sic] where his fellow soldiers assumed he was an Iraqi or a terrorist. Here’s what happened: "They … Read More
DOJ To Face Defeats In Supreme Court
This Newsweek article lays it on the line: it looks like Bush and the DOJ are about to get bitch-slapped by the U.S. Supreme Court, and they know it. The overall administration argument of the Padilla case, as well as the GITMO cases, is that "we are in a time of war, and because of that, we — as a … Read More
Torture Training
From the NY Times LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 8 — Reversing itself, the Army said Tuesday that a G.I. was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Army had previously said Specialist Sean Baker’s medical discharge in April was unrelated to the injury he … Read More
The Torture Memo – A First Stab
I’ll throw my hat into the legal analysis ring, although you can (or will) find good analyses here and here as well. UPDATE: A very fine first draft critique by University of Miami law professor Michael Froomkin can be found here. I say "very fine" because it mirrors my comments, plus a few more . . . and is better … Read More
Now THIS is interesting . . .
First the background . . . This document is part of Bush’s military records — specifically, it is the document which records that Bush was suspended from flight status for failure to show up for an annual physical examination. Interestingly, below the entry for Bush is another entry for another pilot, also removed from flight status (on the same day), … Read More
Lesson of the Day
Eric Alterman nails it: If you fire a photographer, the photograph you fired her for will get printed again and again, even in the New York Times, which otherwise might have left the whole thing alone. This of course refers to the Pentagon/Bush ban on photos of dead troops in their coffins — an order which was violated by Pentagon … Read More
Say WHAT?!?
In an article entitled AP Poll: More than 30 months after attacks, concerns that the terrorists might be winning comes the following paragraphs: More than 30 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, two-thirds of Americans acknowledge some concern that terrorists may be recruiting faster than the United States can keep up. A third of those polled feel strongly this … Read More