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

Category: Terror War

  • A family who fights together

    I just thought this story in the Washington Post is interesting;

    No wonder Chandra and LaShawn Miller, specialists with the D.C. Army National Guard, balked when their mother announced that she was transferring to their unit, the 547th Transportation Company, and deploying to Iraq with them.

    The news was worse than having her chaperone a first date.

    “I told her to stay home and bake cookies,” Chandra Miller said. Even more worrisome was the prospect of losing their mother, Sgt. Marcia Reid, in combat, which would be like “losing my whole world,” Chandra Miller said.

    Reid had considered staying home and spending the year doting on her grandchildren and working her safe IT job. But Reid is a soldier — and a mother. And two of her four daughters were headed for Iraq. “If they were to get hurt I would much rather be with them,” she said.

    It’s a nice story (I’m sure someone will find something to grouse about, though) and I thought I’d post it for y’all. I understand how Sergeant Reid feels.

  • American Legion takes on ACLU’s FOIA

    This is exactly why I joined the American Legion last week. David Rehbein, the national commander of the American Legion writes a fiery missive in the Wall Street Journal today in regards to the ACLU’s FOIA filing for photographs of alleged abuse of detainees at the hands of US forces in Iraq. Mr. Rehbein’s piece is titled “Photos that could cost lives“;

    Releasing photographs of alleged or actual detainee abuse in the War on Terrorism is not worth the life of a single American. Of course, as some have noted, the incidents at Abu Ghraib have already endangered our troops. So did any orders and policies that may have led to those incidents. But what is to be accomplished by continuing to provide ammunition and provocation to the enemy?

    ACLU’s filing is nothing more than a transparent attempt to turn the world against us. That world that riots at the sight of political cartoons and unfounded rumors about Korans flushed down the toilet. Al Qaeda claimed that their beheading of Nick Berg was in retaliation for the last photos that were released in regards to supposed torture. Two American soldiers held captive were also beheaded in retaliation. How many lives is ACLU willing to sacrifice for the next round of scandal?

    Mr Rehbein continues;

    I was deeply disturbed by the images of Abu Ghraib. The military, however, has investigated the abuses and punished those involved. Moreover, the photographs that are now about to be released are already being used for investigative purposes. Other than self-flagellation by certain Americans, riots and future terrorist acts, what else do people expect will come from the release of these photographs?

    At least the American Legion is willing to stand up for troops and says what needs to be said. In fact, the American Legion has led the VSOs in standing up for the troops since the war against terror began, they’ve been especially vigilant over the last few months when we’ve need them most. Mr Rehbein explains why;

    As commander of the nation’s largest veterans service organization, I have had the honor to present Blue Star Banners to military families, with the Blue Star signifying the deployment of a service member. It is always a moving experience. But it is the Gold Star Banner, the star that signifies the death of a service member in war, that I never hope to present. I fear that there will be many Gold Stars as a result of this misbegotten policy.

    Next month, I proudly join the ranks of Blue Star families as my only son gets deployed to Afghanistan and it’s reassuring to know that the folks at the American Legion are checking his six.

  • CIA: Pelosi knew about EITs

    Last month, I got an email from Code Pink calling on Nancy Pelosi to press forward with the investigations of the Bush Administration’s use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) against terrorists;

    The Washington Times and the Washington Post both announced this morning that Speaker Pelosi knew about Enhanced Interrogation Techniques according to records of the briefings to Pelosi and Porter Goss on September 4, 2002. The Times;

    The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, indicates that a classified CIA briefing of Mrs. Pelosi included specific details of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah.

    “Briefing on EITs included use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed,” the report said of the Sept. 4, 2002, briefing.

    The U.S. government acknowledged in the “torture memos” that President Obama declassified last month that the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah included waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning and is widely denounced as torture, 83 times in August 2002, a month before the Pelosi briefing.

    The Post reports that Pelosi is still clinging to her previous lie despite the evidence against her;

    In a carefully worded statement, Pelosi’s office said today that she had never been briefed about the use of waterboarding, only that it had been approved by Bush administration lawyers as a legal technique to use in interrogations.

    “As this document shows, the Speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002. The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used,” said Brendan Daly, Pelosi’s spokesman.

    Pelosi’s statement did not address whether she was informed that other harsh techniques were already in use during the Zubaydah interrogations.

    So will Code Pink now demand an investigation into Pelosi’s involvement? Not holding my breath.

  • That proposed $17 billion savings in the budget

    So that President Obama guy announced that he had hacked $17 billion off of his record-setting spending spree of a budget for next year – less than 1/2 of 1% of the budget. He points out that he’s saving us from ourselves; (Reuters quote)

    “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,” Obama told reporters. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration or the next generation.”

    Yeah, the “hard choices” like half of the budget cuts coming from the Department of Defense according both Reuters and Associated Press;

    About half the budget savings would come from an effort by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to curb defense programs, including ending production of the F-22 fighter and killing a much-maligned replacement helicopter fleet for the president that’s way over budget.

    Oh, so he’s going to sacrifice his own proposal to buy a slew of new helicopters to ferry him back and forth to Andrews Air Force Base and Camp David. That almost compares to cutting tankers and fighters, doesn’t it? I mean stuff that we need to defend ourselves with. Stuff the Constitution says that government is supposed to do.

    But, the budget knife is aimed at critical social stuff, too;

    On the domestic side of the ledger, an early childhood education program known as “Even Start” and a long-range radio navigation system that has been made obsolete by GPS technology were on the chopping block.

    Other cuts included halting payments to states for abandoned mines that already have been cleaned up and cutting a Department of Education attache position in Paris.

    So some DOE weinie is going to leave his cushy posting in Paris – big whoop. That’s almost like cutting fighters and tankers, isn’t it? Most of the cuts in domestic spending were dusted off from the Bush Administration;

    Many of the cuts mirror those proposed previously by Bush but largely rejected by Congresses controlled by both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, Democrats already have pared about $10 billion from Obama’s appropriations requests in passing the $3.4 trillion congressional budget plan last month.

    Oh, and the President’s promise to not raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 fell by the way side, too – he’s raising airport fees to cover the costs of posting those federal irritants known as TSA agents so they can continue to put my toothpaste in a baggie for me.

    Like I’ve ben saying for months, when the Democrats threaten budget cuts, defense has to put their collective hand over their collective balls. Well, and that one Ed Department weinie in Paris.

  • This a foreign policy?

    Associated Press is ready to hand President another victory in foreign policy with this article about Obama “pressing” Pakistan into fighting the Taliban.

    However, the Pakistanis were on the job before Obama decided to “press” them according to the New York Times;

    I mean it’s nice that Obama supports the Pakistanis and hasn’t threatened no bomb them yet, but jeez, AP. This is like the Somali pirate story where Obama stayed out of the way and got all of the credit for resolving the issue.

  • The mild discomfort of torture

    Last night, our President let us know that the discomfort of waterboarding is now torture. And how does he know this? Because of his vast experience of being President an entire one hundred days. The Washington Times quotes;

    “I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe, but I am absolutely convinced that the best way I can do that is to make sure we are not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are,” he said. “There have been no circumstances during the course of this first hundred days in which I have seen information that would make me second-guess the decision I have made.”

    In other words, he’s been president for a hundred days and you haven’t – so who is smarter? Certainly not you. And since you think you’re such a smarty-pants, he knows stuff you don’t;

    He said he has read the memos former Vice President Dick Cheney has asked be declassified and that the Republican says would show the tactics worked to get critical information that prevented attacks. But Mr. Obama said the memos don’t prove the information couldn’t have been gotten by other methods, and said even if America’s job is harder, it’s worth the trade-off.

    There. See? He’s read the Cheney memos and you haven’t. When you’ve read the Cheney memos, you can have an opinion – but until then, shut up. You.

    Let me show you how much torture is involved in waterboarding. The regular readers of this blog know that IVAW’s Matthis Chiroux is a big pussy, right? If waterboarding is torture, do you honestly think that Chiroux would allow World Can’t Wait to waterboard him in front of the UN? See for yourself;

    You’ll notice that Chiroux’s hands aren’t bound, yet when he is waterboarded, his hands stay behind his back, entirely voluntarily. If Chiroux truly thought he was in danger, and if waterboarding was really a fear-inducing practice, his arms would be flailing around involuntarily. besides, if it was as dangerous as the Left seems to think it is, do you honestly believe a sissy like Chiroux would allow himself to be involved in it? I mean seriously.

    Thanks for showing us that waterboarding isn’t torture, Chiroux. I owe you a cookie.

  • Democrat Senators continue partisan probe

    COB6 wrote yesterday that there won’t be any “truth commission” investigations because of a piece Porter Goss wrote in the Washington Post about the complicity of the Congressional Democrats in the decision to approve what we’re calling torture these days. Well, Carl Levin and Dianne Feinstein are renewing their calls for a Senate investigation according to Fox News;

    The California Democrat said her committee already was investigating the methods detailed, but Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he wants independent investigators to determine whether any Bush administration officials should be prosecuted.

    “I have recommended that the Department of Justice select one or two or three people outside of the department who will have credibility, perhaps retired federal judges, who will make a recommendation to the Department of Justice as to whether or not anybody ought to be prosecuted on this matter or any other action ought to be taken against lawyers, for instance,” Levin said on “FOX News Sunday.”

    He added that he objects to the idea that the interrogators who carried out the tactics should be the only ones prosecuted.

    “For the president of the United States to say that a few American troops dishonored us at Abu Ghraib — no. What dishonored us were the policies and practices that were authorized that went to Abu Ghraib, and there ought to be accountability. But how that is done should be done by an independent person, not by elected politicians,” he said.

    I’m waiting for the Bush Administration’s memo approving naked pyramids and genital pointing. Jay Rockefeller, one of the Senators who was supposedly briefed by the Bush Administration and gave at least his tacit approval was clear that he only wants this to be a purely partisan investigation according to The Hill last week;

    “I do not believe that front-line counter-terror professionals who relied in good faith on Department of Justice legal opinions should face prosecution,” Rockefeller said. “But I am not prepared to say the same for the senior Bush administration officials who authorized or directed these policies in the first place. The focus for right now should be on finding the facts.”

    So what’s driving this partisan fishing expedition? Here’s a hint;
    (more…)

  • Book review: Out of Captivity

    I hate writing book reviews, but every once in a while, I read a book that  just stands out from a lot of stuff that passes for literature these days. That’s the case of “Out of Captivity” written by Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes, Keith Stansell about their nearly 2,000 days as prisoners and hostages of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionario de Colombia – FARC.

    Gonsalves, Howes and Stansell were contractors flying reconnaissance for the US government over FARC’s cocaine fields when their aircraft malfunctioned and crashed. Though all five of the occupants survived the crash, two were killed out right by FARC guerrillas and the remaining three became pawns in a huge political game.

    The first quarter of the book is about their first forty days – an arduous march through the thick, mountainous jungles of Colombia. A weeks-long struggle against the jungle and the guerillas while they were forced by their captors to avoid detection by the Colombian army – their salvation and their death sentence. Living on blocks of sugar, packets of Saltine crackers and brown water, fighting infection from the injuries of the crash they plod and carry each other further into the jungle.

    The interpersonal relationships between the Americans, the Colombians, FARC guerrillas and Colombian Army are a fascinating study.

    Aside from being an excellent story about the human spirit, it’s very well-written so that I felt hungry, haggard and trapped as they recount their ordeal.

    So now that I’ve convinced you to buy the book, please buy it from the Amazon links in my sidebar so you cheapskates can support this blog (see, that’s why I’m not in sales). “Out of Captivity” is listed in the ad entitled “I recommend” – those things are all books, movies and stuff I own or read.

    No matter where you buy this book, though, you must  read it.