This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Do You Miss Me Yet?

  • RWN interviews Donald Rumsfeld

    John Hawkins at Right Wing News sends us a link to his interview with Donald Rumsfeld. here some amples;

    Rumsfeld on Barack Obama’s bowing: “I think the words and actions of an American president are just enormously important. I think the impression that one gets is that for whatever reason, this President came into office believing that America was part of the problem in the world and that therefore, it needed to be apologized for in some way.

    I’m proud of our country. I think that the proof is in the pudding and the tasting and the fact that people are lined up at our embassies, all around the world, trying to come here ought to tell us something. What it tells me is that the United State of America is the land of opportunity. It is an exceptional country and we do stand for something important, that a great many people across the globe aspire to and regrettably, don’t have.”

    Rumsfeld on Truthers: “I mean, there was one law suit I got that was contending that I had advance knowledge that 911 was going to occur and I was negligent in not evacuating the Pentagon before the plane hit. Where does this screwball stuff come from? Well, all I can tell you is it doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s not just made in the ether out there. There are people who want to discredit our government and they perpetuate lies like that with purpose.”

    Rumsfeld on Egypt: “Then in Iran, you end up with a popular revolution and you end up with a handful of Ayatollahs dominating the country in a repressive way – and that’s possible in Egypt. I mean you could end up with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that is a terrorist organization, taking over because they are better organized. Even though they’re a very small minority, they’re better organized, disciplined, and ambitious.”

    If you miss the old post 9-11 press briefings he used to give, this interview ought to fill that hole in your life for a few moments.

  • Congress won’t close Guantanamo

    This ought to reverberate through the anti-war and the Amnesty International crowd – the Democrats rolled out the omnibus spending bill today without funds to close Guantanamo and move the “detainees” to the US according to the Washington Times;

    The massive spending bill Democrats released early Wednesday morning would prohibit the Obama administration from spending any money either to transfer detainees to the United States or to buy a replacement prison in the United States, as Mr. Obama had planned.

    Prohibiting spending effectively stops the administration from acting over the next year, and with Republicans about to take control of the House in January, his chances are virtually zero that Congress will relent any time before the president stands for re-election in 2012.

    The bill, which will be voted on over the next week or so, explicitly prohibits the transfer of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

    Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out that the Democrats whined for eight years about Guantanamo and now the first time they can do something about it, they fall on their faces. It’s the same with the PATRIOT Act and the myriad other things (tax cuts?) they cried crocodile tears over that they’re unwilling to be responsible for now.

    I guess it couldn’t have anything to do with a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Bill Gertz of the Washington Times link);

    The report, made public Tuesday, stated that out of a total of 598 detainees released as of October, 150 were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer,” the two-page unclassified summary said.

    It’s almost as it Bush was right all along, isn’t it?

  • Gitmo detainee cleared of 284 charges

    Ahmed Ghailani, a participant in the bombing of the US embassies in eastern Africa in 1998 was being tried in a New York City federal district court and was the Obama Administration’s centerpiece trial for avoiding trial by military commissions and escaping the shadow of the Bush Administration. Well, the civilian jury cleared Ghailani of all of the murder charges leveled against him as well as nearly 60 other charges. The Washington Post tells us;

    The outcome, a surprise, seriously undermines – and could doom – the Obama administration’s plans to put other Guantanamo detainees on trial in U.S. civilian courts.

    Yeah, it was a surprise if you’ve been locked in a closet for the last nine years. The Bush Administration and everyone who ever knew the smallest details of the military commissions predicted this would happen…but not the Washington Post and the Obama Administration apparently.

    The Washington Times reports the Obama Administration’s reaction;

    The Obama administration didn’t address such criticisms Wednesday and focused instead on the one charge on which Ghailani was convicted.

    “We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

    Yeah, they barely dodged a bullet and they think it’s a success.

    Of course, this is a result of doing the opposite of the Bush Administration just for the sake of being contrary. Closing Guantanamo isn’t going as smoothly as it sounded while the Obama crew was on the campaign trail – all of those Obama voters can tic off another thing he promised and didn’t accomplish because the president has been gob-smacked by reality.

  • Bush accepts responsibility for waterboarding in book

    R. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post claims he knows someone who has read a copy of President Bush’s memoir “Decision Point” and that in the book, the former president admits that he gave the CIA the go-ahead for waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed;

    In his book, titled “Decision Points,” Bush recounts being asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who Bush said was suspected of knowing about still-pending terrorist plots against the United States. Bush writes that his reply was “Damn right” and states that he would make the same decision again to save lives, according to a someone close to Bush who has read the book.

    You mean he didn’t impanel a blue ribbon commission to deliberate for months while the political advisers shopped the proper response and polled study groups?

    And then he admits it in his book, despite the fact that he might be tried in some useless-ass international court?

    I wonder what you’d call all of that?