Waterboarding Pales in Comparison to the Comfy Chair
(In particular, read comments #16 and #17....they're quite grand! ;) )
Labels: CIA, FBI, Guantanamo, War on Terror, wawaterboarding
Illuminating the untempered soul and the blunt mind by hammering out sparks of Clarity and Truth on the Anvil of Debate.
"Sometimes, you go to war with the media you have, not the media you wish you had"
-Wordsmith
Labels: CIA, FBI, Guantanamo, War on Terror, wawaterboarding
Labels: Democrats, Republicans
It wasn't an attack, or even a drill -- it was a government-sponsored photo op.
The Pentagon did tell local authorities about the startling fly-over that sent a Boeing 747 and a F-16 fighter screaming over New York's scarred skyline, but officials said they couldn't share the information with the public. They couldn't even share the information with the mayor.
Mayor Bloomberg said he was "furious" and criticized both the feds and his own administration for failing to issue a simple warning to the public in a city that is still somewhat traumatized by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"The good news is it was nothing more than an inconsiderate, badly conceived and insensitive photo op with the taxpayers' money," Bloomberg said.
News 4 New York learned Monday night that at least 90 calls were placed to 911 about the plane.
An official from the Obama administration said the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty.
This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the White House Military Office told the Federal Aviation Administration that it periodically updates file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks, like the statute in New York harbor and the Grand Canyon.
"It's completely asinine after 9/11 to do that," said Keith Mercantine, who witnessed the chaos in Jersey City. "I saw ambulances out here with pregnant women."
An Air Force One lookalike and F-16 buzzed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor in the morning, halting work on nearby construction sites, causing residents and office workers to flee their high-rises and giving thousands of people in downtown Manhattan and New Jersey a major fright.
At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their buildings.
"Everybody panicked," said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. "Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I'm devastated...Everybody was running, we didn't know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again."
Labels: 9/11, Barack Obama
In the wake of the release of OLC memos authorizing torture, Bush apologists are frantically trying to show that torture worked. Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that claimed that torturing Khalid Sheik Mohammed had foiled a second plot to use airplanes to attack the highest skyscraper on the West Coast, the Library Tower.
Labels: CIA, kSM, War on Terror, waterboarding, Zubaydah
Labels: Christopher Hitchens, waterboarding
Labels: Barack Obama, Chris Jericho, Entertainment, socialism, WWE
In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge yesterday, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over to the American Civil Liberties Union 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.
The photographs are part of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU for all information relating to the treatment of detainees -- the same battle that led, last week, to President Obama's decision to release memos from the Bush Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel providing legal justifications for harsh interrogation methods that human rights groups call torture.
Courts had ruled against the Bush administration's attempts to keep the photographs from public view. ACLU attorney Amrit Singh tells ABC News that "the fact that the Obama administration opted not to seek further review is a sign that it is committed to more transparency."
Singh added that the photographs "only underscore the need for a criminal investigation and prosecution if warranted" of U.S. officials responsible for the harsh treatment of detainees.
But some experts say the move could have a chilling effect on the CIA even beyond President Obama's decision last week to release the so-called "torture memos."
Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs "prurient" and "reprehensible," Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
"They should have fought it all the way; if they lost, they lost," Lowenthal said. "There's nothing to be gained from it. There's no substantive reason why those photos have to be released."
Lowenthal said the president's moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on "the undercurrent I've been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago."
"We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they've been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong," Lowenthal says. "They don't believe they have that cover anymore." Releasing the photographs "will make it much worse," he said.
Of what purpose will this serve? We've all witnessed how volatile Islamist-loonies are for the smallest slights and even imagined slights. MSM reportage of the incidents of abu Ghraib, almost single-handedly destroyed our efforts to secure post-war Iraq. Instead of serving to enlighten, it only served to inflame and recruit takfiri terrorists to the global jihad movement. How will the release of these 44 photos, while we are still in a state of "overseas contingency operations", help protect America? What is the point of releasing these photos now?The photos, taken from Air Force and Army criminal investigations, apparently are not as shocking as the photographs from the Abu Ghraib investigation that became a lasting symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But some show military personnel intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint.Does anyone besides myself, see a strong disconnect here?! Just whose side is the Administration on? "We support the CIA and we support the troops" by humiliating them and giving validation to anti-Americanism abroad as well as here at home.
Well, at least they didn't waterboard their victims; that would have been so wrong!- Dana, commenter at American PowerCross-posted at Flopping Aces
Labels: Abu Ghraib, military, Pakistan, Taliban, War on Terror, waterboarding
Labels: Saddam-Al Qaeda Connection
Labels: American culture, Dennis Prager, social issues
Labels: Associated Press, Barack Obama, media bias, polls
Labels: Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Hugho Chavez
ROESGEN: OK, well, Kiran, we'll move on over here. I think you get the general tenor of this. Uh, it's anti-government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the Right-wing conservative network, FOX. And since I can't really hear much more, and I think this is not really family viewing, toss it back to you, Kiran.
Kyra Phillips: I know Susan Roesgen is having a hard time hearing me, but wow. That is the prime example of what we're following across the country there. Susan pointed out everything plain and clear of what she's dealing with.
Labels: CNN, media bias, Tea Party
"American Idol" isn't the only launching pad for aspiring singers. Across the pond, "Britain's Got Talent" scored a huge boost in the Buzz after an unassuming contestant gave an amazing performance.
Susan Boyle (remember that name) became a Web phenomenon after singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. The performance brought the audience to its feet and left the judges (including Simon Cowell) either speechless or in tears.
Before going on stage, Ms. Boyle admitted some self-deprecating facts about herself (she's never been kissed and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles). For those reasons and more, audiences were expecting the female William Hung. They were wrong.
Lookups on the sudden star posted huge gains. A no-name just the other day, Ms. Boyle quickly surged into our top 5,000 overall searches. Blogs and gossip rags went wild. The Mirror jumped on the story, reporting that while Ms. Boyle thought she "looked like a garage" on TV, she received a standing ovation when she showed up at her local church.
Other sources write that as a child, Ms. Boyle was the target of bullies because of a disability. But, with her newfound fame, she is getting the last laugh. In fact, she's already meeting with officials from Mr. Cowell's Sony BMG label. This may have been the first you've heard of her, but it certainly won't be the last.
Source: Yahoo Buzz
Labels: Entertainment
Labels: 110th Congress, Bailout/Rescue Bill, economy, protestors, taxes, Tea Party
Labels: Barack Obama, George Bush, NSA
That said, I checked some of the links at Memeorandum to get a feel for the blogospheric buzz, and many of those on the left aren't celebrating this event for the triumph of heroism that it is. Readers should check the comments at Think Progress, where some of the visitors there are scourging the United States, and suggesting that piracy is a legitimate response to Eurupe's "nuclear waste off the coast of Somalia." One of commenters blames the Bush administration:We are always interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and always trying to stop any progressive movement or any form of good self-government.A couple of the visitors at the post have linked to a piece at Crooks and Liars, "What the International Media Aren't Telling You About Somalia Pirates."
Read the whole post. Crooks and Liars links to an anti-capitalist essay at London's Independent, and then concludes with this flourish, "I wonder which principled member of our corporate media will point out that, in the big picture, the Somali pirates are acting in self-defense?"
Well, I wonder which principled member of our (leftist) media will point out that this is the exact same kind of logic that we saw after September 11, 2001, when leftists claimed Americans deserved the atttacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Indeed, some widely-supported anti-Americans suggested that the "chickens came home to roost" on 9/11.
With no coast guard to defend its shores, Somalis began complaining that vessels from Asia and Europe were dumping toxic waste in their waters and illegally scooping up red snapper, barracuda and tuna. The rampant illegal fishing began destroying the livelihoods of local fishermen.
According to a memo prepared last month by the staff of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Somali clans began resorting "to armed gangs in an attempt to stop the foreign vessels. Over time, these gangs have evolved into hijacking commercial vessels for ransom as an alternative source of income."
Labels: Somalia
Labels: Easter, Entertainment, South Park
Labels: Barack Obama, George Bush, Iraq, military
Labels: anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, George Bush, Turkey
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates predicted North Korea would launch a missile soon and said there's nothing the United States can do about it.
"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," said Gates during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
STRASBOURG, France - Welcomed with thunderous cheers, President Barack Obama told a European audience on Friday that he is setting a dramatic goal of "a world without nuclear weapons."By Sunday morning:
The new American president opened a town-hall style gathering with the declaration, saying he would outline details in Prague in the coming days.
"Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet," Obama said, previewing a planned speech.
North Korea launches missile.
Labels: Entertainment, Kim Jong-Il, North Korea, Team America
Labels: Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, G-20
Labels: Bailout/Rescue Bill, economy, Entertainment, South Park, YouTube