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Thursday, November 06, 2003

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...in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

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Thursday, November 06, 2003

This post from the Daily Outrage is totally a must-read...remember that Syrian-born Canadian citizen who got sent off to points unknown last year? The blogs were, of course, onto it.

As a legal concept, can someone explain the difference between George W. Bush's "enemy combatant" and Josef Stalin's "enemy of the people"? I don't think there is one: In each case, a national leader on his own, without courts, without laws, without clear definitions, dreams up a label and his government then applies it to certain people -- and then they're gone.

I'll never cease to be amazed what a non-issue this is. We've got upwards of 600 people in a jail-for-life-without-charges-or-trial purgatory -- and somehow that's okay because we're holding them in a US-controlled chunk of Cuba, where our highest principles don't apply. At some point, no doubt declaring ourselves dizzy with success in the war on terror, we'll let them be tried or released. Or not.

Meanwhile, yet another screaming outrage waltzes across the front page of The Washington Post -- and is ignored. The Post at least cared enough to put it there, but where are this nation's political leaders, and why aren't they asking questions about it?

The story goes like this: A man born in Syria but now a Canadian citizen -- a man who has lived in Canada with his family for 15 years -- was flying home from abroad via New York last year when he was detained at JFK. Our government says he was on a terrorist watch list of some sort (though it's a miracle we'd be organized enough to notice). The man insists he has no ties to terror whatsoever, and the Canadian government is already falling all over itself to apologize -- apparently it was a Canadian agency that listed him.

That's not the outrage. Here's the outrage part: Instead of charging this man, or trying him, or delivering him to Canada law enforcement, we denied him a lawyer or even a phone call. (He couldn't have a lawyer because he "wasn't American." If I'm detained in a Paris airport, do I now need to be a Frenchman to merit a lawyer?) The man says he was shackled, flown on a small plane to Washington, turned over to an unspecified new crowd of Americans -- and then flown to Jordan, handed over to authorities there, and tortured.

For the next ten months, first in Jordan and then in Syria, he says he was tortured and ordered to sign confessions. When he wasn't being beaten, he says he was kept in a three-by-six-foot cell with no light, a metal door, and a ceiling seven feet overhead. "There was a small opening in the ceiling," the man says. "There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time, the cats peed through the opening into the cell."

The Post article quotes anonymous US officials who say "the case fits the profile of a covert CIA 'extraordinary rendition' -- the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners. ..."

"A senior US intelligence official discussed the case in terms of the secret rendition policy. There have been 'a lot of rendition activities' since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the official said. 'We are doing a number of them, and they have been very productive.'

"Renditions are a legitimate option for dealing with suspected terrorists, intelligence officials argue. The US government officially rejects the assertion that it knowingly sends suspects abroad to be tortured, but officials admit they sometimes do that. 'The temptation is to have these folks in other hands because they have different standards,' one official said. 'Someone might be able to get information we can't from detainees,' said another."

Yes, by all means, let's take our lead from the Syrians and Uzbeks and other dictatorships. They've done such an awesome job guaranteeing domestic tranquility and security, they should definitely be our model.
posted by Jenny at 2:44 PM |

...and speaking of Atrios, he's got the caption of the week right here. Just click.
posted by Jenny at 2:32 PM |

Heh...via South Knox Bubba, Atrios has posted a gem of a quote from Dick Cheney, ca 1991 on why George I didn't finish the job in Iraq back in *insert Dana Carvey accent here* "Desert storm, desert storm"...

Well, just as it's important, I think, for a president to know when to commit U.S. forces to combat, it's also important to know when not to commit U.S. forces to combat. I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government would we have? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shi'a government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Ba'ath Party? Would be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept the responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all.

Too bad old Dick can't take any of his own advice, eh?
posted by Jenny at 2:26 PM |

I'm back, and I hope that some of you are indeed still out there--there was, as I had feared, a weeklong delay in the establishment of our telephone and internet connection...the pause was pretty positive for me though--have been focusing on lots of ugly real-life stuff, but nice new neighbors (who arrived last weekend bearing a huge heart made of garlands and paper flowers to welcome us into the neighborhood) are making the transition to the countryside a bit easier. Now if I only had wheels...

At any rate, it's good to be back in the blogging business, and I hope that you folks will accept my apology for my irksome absence, particularly since there's a whole lot of interesting stuff in the news these days! Hesiod, for example, has just enlightened me that the US armed forces reserve the right to execute their own under charges of cowardice:

FORT CARSON, Colo. - Three days after he arrived in Iraq, an Army interrogator saw the mangled body of Iraqi man who had been cut in half by American fire.

Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany said he began shaking and vomiting and feared for his life. Soon, Pogany says, he had troubles sleeping and started suffering what he thought were panic attacks.

Six weeks later, Pogany, 32, is facing a cowardice charge that he says was filed after he sought counseling. Pogany denies that he acted in a cowardly way.

"What is tragic about this is the message being sent to other soldiers," Pogany said recently. "It's not about me."

A military court hearing is scheduled Friday at Fort Carson, 70 miles south of Denver, where Pogany is stationed. The proceeding is similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian court where a judge determines if there is enough evidence to go to trial.

Cowardice violations can be punished by death. Military code does not include a minimum sentence. Army officials have declined to discuss the case.

Cowardice charges are rare. The last such conviction in the Army occurred during the Vietnam War. Charges were filed against a married couple during the Gulf War, but reduced to mistreatment of public property, said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

"You have to look pretty hard to find any of these cases," Fidell said. "We have a well-trained army that is a motivated one."

Pogany's case and others that are similar suggest Iraqi deployments are wearing thin, said military analyst Dan Goure of the Lexington Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

"I think what you are seeing here is a consequence of the changed character of an all-volunteer force," Goure said. "The strain gets worse when you have longer deployments or multiple deployments or changing deployments."

Assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, Pogany was attached to a team of Green Berets on Sept. 26 when he departed for Iraq. He declined to discuss his responsibilities, citing security issues.

Three days later, he was standing in a U.S. compound near Samarra north of Baghdad when soldiers brought in the Iraqi man's bloody body. The soldiers told Pogany the man was killed after he was seen shooting a rocket-propelled grenade.

Pogany said he was shaken, couldn't focus and kept vomiting. He told his commanders he believed he was suffering from panic attacks or a nervous breakdown and requested counseling.

At least one officer suggested he consider what such a request would do to his career, Pogany said. When he sought help, "I was told that I was wasting their time," Pogany said.

Pogany was examined by psychologist Capt. Marc Houck, who concluded he had signs consistent with normal combat stress reaction. Houck recommended Pogany be given a brief rest before returning to duty, but he was sent home to Fort Carson in mid-October and charged with "cowardly conduct as a result of fear."

Pogany said he asked three times to be given time to adjust and complete the recommended treatment while in Iraq.

Pogany said he can offer a credible defense. "If the Army decides to go down the route of character assassination, I have plenty to show I have been a good soldier for five years," he said.

His attorney, Richard Travis, speculated that Pogany may have received more help if he had been assigned to another unit.

"All he wanted was some help dealing with the physical reaction he was having, including vomiting, shaking and inability to sleep," Travis said.

Too pissed off to comment.
posted by Jenny at 2:15 PM |

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This post from the Daily Outrage is totally a must-read...remember that Syrian-born Canadian citizen who got sent off to points unknown last year? The blogs were, of course, onto it.

As a legal concept, can someone explain the difference between George W. Bush's "enemy combatant" and Josef Stalin's "enemy of the people"? I don't think there is one: In each case, a national leader on his own, without courts, without laws, without clear definitions, dreams up a label and his government then applies it to certain people -- and then they're gone.

I'll never cease to be amazed what a non-issue this is. We've got upwards of 600 people in a jail-for-life-without-charges-or-trial purgatory -- and somehow that's okay because we're holding them in a US-controlled chunk of Cuba, where our highest principles don't apply. At some point, no doubt declaring ourselves dizzy with success in the war on terror, we'll let them be tried or released. Or not.

Meanwhile, yet another screaming outrage waltzes across the front page of The Washington Post -- and is ignored. The Post at least cared enough to put it there, but where are this nation's political leaders, and why aren't they asking questions about it?

The story goes like this: A man born in Syria but now a Canadian citizen -- a man who has lived in Canada with his family for 15 years -- was flying home from abroad via New York last year when he was detained at JFK. Our government says he was on a terrorist watch list of some sort (though it's a miracle we'd be organized enough to notice). The man insists he has no ties to terror whatsoever, and the Canadian government is already falling all over itself to apologize -- apparently it was a Canadian agency that listed him.

That's not the outrage. Here's the outrage part: Instead of charging this man, or trying him, or delivering him to Canada law enforcement, we denied him a lawyer or even a phone call. (He couldn't have a lawyer because he "wasn't American." If I'm detained in a Paris airport, do I now need to be a Frenchman to merit a lawyer?) The man says he was shackled, flown on a small plane to Washington, turned over to an unspecified new crowd of Americans -- and then flown to Jordan, handed over to authorities there, and tortured.

For the next ten months, first in Jordan and then in Syria, he says he was tortured and ordered to sign confessions. When he wasn't being beaten, he says he was kept in a three-by-six-foot cell with no light, a metal door, and a ceiling seven feet overhead. "There was a small opening in the ceiling," the man says. "There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time, the cats peed through the opening into the cell."

The Post article quotes anonymous US officials who say "the case fits the profile of a covert CIA 'extraordinary rendition' -- the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners. ..."

"A senior US intelligence official discussed the case in terms of the secret rendition policy. There have been 'a lot of rendition activities' since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the official said. 'We are doing a number of them, and they have been very productive.'

"Renditions are a legitimate option for dealing with suspected terrorists, intelligence officials argue. The US government officially rejects the assertion that it knowingly sends suspects abroad to be tortured, but officials admit they sometimes do that. 'The temptation is to have these folks in other hands because they have different standards,' one official said. 'Someone might be able to get information we can't from detainees,' said another."

Yes, by all means, let's take our lead from the Syrians and Uzbeks and other dictatorships. They've done such an awesome job guaranteeing domestic tranquility and security, they should definitely be our model.

posted by Jenny at 2:44 PM |

...and speaking of Atrios, he's got the caption of the week right here. Just click.

posted by Jenny at 2:32 PM |

Heh...via South Knox Bubba, Atrios has posted a gem of a quote from Dick Cheney, ca 1991 on why George I didn't finish the job in Iraq back in *insert Dana Carvey accent here* "Desert storm, desert storm"...

Well, just as it's important, I think, for a president to know when to commit U.S. forces to combat, it's also important to know when not to commit U.S. forces to combat. I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government would we have? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shi'a government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Ba'ath Party? Would be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept the responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all.

Too bad old Dick can't take any of his own advice, eh?

posted by Jenny at 2:26 PM |

I'm back, and I hope that some of you are indeed still out there--there was, as I had feared, a weeklong delay in the establishment of our telephone and internet connection...the pause was pretty positive for me though--have been focusing on lots of ugly real-life stuff, but nice new neighbors (who arrived last weekend bearing a huge heart made of garlands and paper flowers to welcome us into the neighborhood) are making the transition to the countryside a bit easier. Now if I only had wheels...

At any rate, it's good to be back in the blogging business, and I hope that you folks will accept my apology for my irksome absence, particularly since there's a whole lot of interesting stuff in the news these days! Hesiod, for example, has just enlightened me that the US armed forces reserve the right to execute their own under charges of cowardice:

FORT CARSON, Colo. - Three days after he arrived in Iraq, an Army interrogator saw the mangled body of Iraqi man who had been cut in half by American fire.

Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany said he began shaking and vomiting and feared for his life. Soon, Pogany says, he had troubles sleeping and started suffering what he thought were panic attacks.

Six weeks later, Pogany, 32, is facing a cowardice charge that he says was filed after he sought counseling. Pogany denies that he acted in a cowardly way.

"What is tragic about this is the message being sent to other soldiers," Pogany said recently. "It's not about me."

A military court hearing is scheduled Friday at Fort Carson, 70 miles south of Denver, where Pogany is stationed. The proceeding is similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian court where a judge determines if there is enough evidence to go to trial.

Cowardice violations can be punished by death. Military code does not include a minimum sentence. Army officials have declined to discuss the case.

Cowardice charges are rare. The last such conviction in the Army occurred during the Vietnam War. Charges were filed against a married couple during the Gulf War, but reduced to mistreatment of public property, said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

"You have to look pretty hard to find any of these cases," Fidell said. "We have a well-trained army that is a motivated one."

Pogany's case and others that are similar suggest Iraqi deployments are wearing thin, said military analyst Dan Goure of the Lexington Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

"I think what you are seeing here is a consequence of the changed character of an all-volunteer force," Goure said. "The strain gets worse when you have longer deployments or multiple deployments or changing deployments."

Assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, Pogany was attached to a team of Green Berets on Sept. 26 when he departed for Iraq. He declined to discuss his responsibilities, citing security issues.

Three days later, he was standing in a U.S. compound near Samarra north of Baghdad when soldiers brought in the Iraqi man's bloody body. The soldiers told Pogany the man was killed after he was seen shooting a rocket-propelled grenade.

Pogany said he was shaken, couldn't focus and kept vomiting. He told his commanders he believed he was suffering from panic attacks or a nervous breakdown and requested counseling.

At least one officer suggested he consider what such a request would do to his career, Pogany said. When he sought help, "I was told that I was wasting their time," Pogany said.

Pogany was examined by psychologist Capt. Marc Houck, who concluded he had signs consistent with normal combat stress reaction. Houck recommended Pogany be given a brief rest before returning to duty, but he was sent home to Fort Carson in mid-October and charged with "cowardly conduct as a result of fear."

Pogany said he asked three times to be given time to adjust and complete the recommended treatment while in Iraq.

Pogany said he can offer a credible defense. "If the Army decides to go down the route of character assassination, I have plenty to show I have been a good soldier for five years," he said.

His attorney, Richard Travis, speculated that Pogany may have received more help if he had been assigned to another unit.

"All he wanted was some help dealing with the physical reaction he was having, including vomiting, shaking and inability to sleep," Travis said.

Too pissed off to comment.

posted by Jenny at 2:15 PM |