Showing posts with label State Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label State Terrorism. Show all posts
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Dedicated To A Nation Of 'Adult Children' Who Want Terrorism To Disappear (but not their neighbor or themselves)
.Conservative Columnist David Brooks On America, A Nation Of Adult Children who believe that living in a police state beats having to do anything to ameliorate the conditions that lead to it:
(Quote context, in regard to the 'Underpants Bomber' and concurrent citizen attention on alleged 'flaws' in the New American Police State Apparatus.)
"Now we seem to expect perfection from government and then throw temper tantrums when it is not achieved. We seem to be in the position of young adolescents — who believe mommy and daddy can take care of everything, and then grow angry and cynical when it becomes clear they can’t [...]
H/t Firedoglake
Which is QUITE a change in the American attitude from 9 years ago:
"On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid, the 'shoe-bomber,' attempted to detonate explosives on an American airliner. On December 27, Usama Bin Laden issued a new, menacing videotape. How did the Bush administration respond to these dramatic events? How did CNN cover the response?
Bush's response was to plant a live oak tree and go for a jog, and follow 'through on his promise to get a little bit of rest and relaxation on this trip down here to Crawford.' CNN reported this as a good thing. Bush also declined to comment on the Bin Laden tape, and CNN helpfully explained this silence as a wise decision not to respond to someone who 'might be dead.'"
In Full @ Juan Cole's Informed Comment
Pop Quiz!
Analyze the childlike, mercurial, historically amnesiac, American socio-cultural traits, and hypothesize how they affect the reasons, rationales, and denials in regard to the persecution of worthless wars that create 'terrorism' in the first place.
Well, since we can't control our childish desires to accumulate "stuff" at the expense of environmental destruction and slave-labor conditions (Even your chocolate... ...and flowers, Luvr!) those demands place on the extractive and manufacturing countries of the world (ie. the "third world"), we can start by putting everyone we 'fear' in prison... or something LIKE a prison.
(This article appeared in the January 4, 2010 edition of The Nation.)
America's Secret ICE Castles
By Jacqueline Stevens
December 16, 2009
"If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear."
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Years Resolution... "Keep Perspective": *Terrorism Still Less Deadly in US Than Lack of Health Insurance*
.H/t to Firedoglake
"Since we still seem to be having a national freakout over some loser who got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear, which was apparently worthy of a presidential address, it might be a good idea to put the actual danger posed by terrorist attacks in some numerical perspective..."
.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Still "...hoping for change..." (but expecting none) - ARAR REDUX? (Bill Fisher)
(but expecting none)
Our new president, president Obama, has no major problem with 'rendition' either.
But in certain countries of Europe Justice trumps 'hope'.
See: "CIA verdict in Italy challenges Obama on renditions".
ARAR REDUX?
November 09 2009
By William Fisher
On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only Congress and the executive branch of government – not the courts -- can interfere with government-sponsored “extraordinary rendition, ” a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn’t OK to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months.
The citizen is Amir Meshal, 24, the son of Muslim immigrants from Egypt.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit in Meshal’s behalf, after fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Meshal was arrested, secretly imprisoned in inhumane conditions and subjected to harsh interrogations by U.S. officials over 30 times in three different countries before ultimately being released four months later without charge,
"This case challenges the US government’s effort to evade accountability for illegal detention and interrogations in counter-terrorism operations by masking and hiding its involvement," Jonathan Hafetz, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, told IPS.
According to the ACLU, Meshal was studying Islam in Mogadishu, Somalia, in December 2006, when hostilities broke out. With the airport disabled by bombing, Meshal fled to neighboring Kenya, where he wandered in the forest for three weeks seeking shelter and assistance before being arrested. Following his arrest, he was detained and repeatedly interrogated by U.S. officials who threatened to harm him, denied him access to counsel and accused him of receiving training from al-Qaeda, which Meshal denied.
Following his arrest and detention in Kenya, the suit says Meshal was illegally rendered to Somalia and then to Ethiopia where he was imprisoned in secret for over three months. There, U.S. officials subjected him to harsh interrogations while denying him due process and access to a lawyer, his family or anyone else in the outside world...
[In Full at 'The World According To Bill Fisher]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
