One Guantanamo War Crime: Final Chapter

by: Miep

Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 04:23:59 AM EDT

This letter is from my ex-wife Doris Tennant and her partner Ellen Lubell, pro bono attorneys for one victim of the United States War on Terror whom I've mentioned before here and here and here and here.  Their long dutiful service for this Guantanamo detainee is likely over now, as they did all they could within the illegal constraints almost arbitrarily established by the Bush administration and largely continued with President Obama.  Please don't argue about Obama.  Tonight is a night for tears.  This is a very sad end to the war crimes of the United States of America as committed toward Abdul Aziz Naji.

(This is from geomoo on Daily Kos. DK has a caveat at the page bottom:)

"Site content may be used for any purpose without
explicit permission unless otherwise specified."

So I'm reprinting the whole thing. I will let geomoo know where I republish it, and if he has any problems I can delete the crossposts, but I doubt he will.

The link to the DK article is here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

You'll have to look at the original article to get the embedded links and paragraph breaks.

EXECUTE THESE MEN!

by: Stu Piddy

Fri May 28, 2010 at 12:00:57 PM EDT

(Current and former BP Executives)

That's the way the Chinese do it. Don't threaten them with fines and compensation. Execute them.

In July 2007

"Last week, China executed its former top food-and-drug regulator, Zheng Xiaoyu, 62. He was most likely shot in the back of the head or given a lethal injection. The official Xinhua news agency did not say. The point is, he was taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies, and now he's dead."

I wonder how BP executives they would respond if they thought their lives were at risk?  

Schlumberger Engineers Flee Six Hours Before Oil Rig Explodes

by: blues

Sat May 22, 2010 at 13:52:15 PM EDT

ADropOfRain.net

Story circulating in New Orleans...

BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you'll see why.

SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the "company man" (BP's man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo [helicopter] to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo's scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you're here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB's corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB's expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

6 hours later, the platform explodes.

U.S. soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan: heroes, poor helpless victims?

by: fairleft

Mon Apr 05, 2010 at 16:44:20 PM EDT

Handicapped by feeling he has to argue inside the manufactured 'frustrated do-gooder' image of President Obama, rapper Lowkey nonetheless -- in Obama Nation -- above speaks some 'never allowed in the mainstream media' truths about what U.S. and other Western 'colonial policing' soldiers actually do for a living. Their job has two parts: to kill and maim peasants trying to take their countries back from Western invaders and their treasonous puppets, and to kill and maim anyone nearby or slightly suspected of being peasants trying to take their countries back from Western invaders and their treasonous puppets. If there were a God, what would she/he say when one of these Western/U.S. killers for no damn good reason asks for admission to Heaven? 'You poor thing, come right in and make yourself at home'?

Pope Benedict Sexually Abused Children

by: Stu Piddy

Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 11:22:05 AM EDT

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/...

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The above quote is proof that he sexually abused children.

THE PAPAL PIMP

Pope Benedict former Hitler Youth, fought for Hitler in World War II  for 5 long years without resisting. Among other things, he guarded an airplane factory which held Jewish worker slaves.

http://atheism.about.com/od/be...

After becoming a priest and entering into Papal Politics, he was later appointed Head of the Inquistion which has become known as the "Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith".

"There Is More Reason in Your Body Than in Your Best Wisdom"

by: 4kedtongue

Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 18:18:27 PM EST

I remember writing a letter to my parents after first arriving in San Francisco 19 years ago.  In describing my affection for my new neighborhood, North Beach, I recall writing about how I awoke to the smell of coffee beans roasting at the Graffeo Coffee Roasting Company every morning, which reminded me of Saturday mornings at my grandmother's house when I was a child -- the smell of burnt toast, and all the happy feelings of childhood I had associated with that memory.

I've briefly written about this before, but the incident -- the memory and its re-telling (now and when I first wrote about it to my parents) -- has taken on a greater significance to me.  It's unsettling to realize how many of my experiences have gone unexamined and simply accepted -- and relayed as anecdote, charming or otherwise.

I've come to many things late in life.  So be it...this is my "Madeleine Moment."

SWAT Teams and Co-ops

by: Miep

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 03:28:18 AM EST

These people got fucked to the wide, in case you find that of interest. I did.

John and Jackie Stower run the Manna Storehouse in LaGrange, Ohio. Last December their organic food coop and homeschool were raided by a SWAT team, who invaded their home with guns drawn, held them and their family captive for six hours, and confiscated a large amount of food. No charges were ever filed. The Buckeye Institute is helping the Stowers sue the The Lorain County General Health District, the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The trial will open October 8 and 9 at 8:30 am.

Wild Beagle On A Bagle !

by: da real fake noom

Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 16:45:18 PM EST

These ferocious, uncivilized beagles scared the living bejesus out of soom much bigger domesticated dogs. This is the state of dogdom! It's a disgrace! What are these? Chicken dogs? Do they Bark or do the Bawk! Do dogs taste like chicken or joost act like scaredy cats? Dunno . Taste like chicken prollee.

Anyways, how did dogs become so feeble? Humans did it! What's the goddamn pet buisness raking in on the backs of these slave dogs? Billions! Free Dogs!

I always looked on beagles as docile, but now that they're back out in the wild where they belong, you'll note their pack instincts have come to the fore. Their hunting , killer predispositions and proclivities have bubbled up from their canine unconscious. Thas as it should be! These dogs are gonna be blasting thru your windows in the middle of the night munching down on babies heads and your ass! Wake da fook opp evruhbodee, there's a pack of ravenous beagles munching on your ass!

Boot yo, these wild dogs are the tenderest, juiciest , meatiest there is! Woo-wee. Joost ax Mrs. Donkeytale! Donk's nirvayna seeking wife knows all aboout wild beagle meat! BTW donk, how's yore screenplay goin with soc? Did ya send him the five grand yet?

Yep, I'm headin out to LI tomorrow with my shot gun, gonna git me soom beagle fer my bagle.

Wild Beagle on a Bagle! Oh shit, thas good eatin yo!

Charlie Brown, watch your back -- a plague of vicious wild beagles has struck Long Island!

These floppy-eared terrors are no lovable Snoopys -- they're abandoned hunting dogs that live in packs and have gone from humble pets to hounds from hell.

Mattituck resident Dot Faszczewski came face to face with the canine menace two weeks ago, when she was set upon by a group of crazed, hungry beagles as she walked her pet dogs near her parents' Orient Point home.

She said it was like a scene from a werewolf movie.

"They were barking so ferociously that I thought they were going to attack my dogs," she said of the Jan. 16 scare.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l...

Afghan War Will Take Longer Than the Iraq War: Petraues

by: Stu Piddy

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 10:23:42 AM EST

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/0...

As a pretentious, hate-filled, self involved blogger I reported on  a little known incident in 2005 about General Petraues. I put together a few pieces, which  reveals the following:

""If we proceed down the road we are currently on, there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail," Stoffel wrote in an e-mail to a senior assistant to U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was overseeing the task force in charge of the arms deal, according to the story."

Stoffel was murdered 8 days after sending the E-mail to General Petraeus. It must have been a coinkadink. It was the "terrorists" who killed him you see. A bunch of them got together the night before, decided to form a group, gave themselves a name and then gunned him down and disbanded, never to be heard of again immediately after. They just wanted to be terrorists that day.

Anyway,, thank God the Iraq war is over

http://www.reuters.com/article...

Down-to-earth with SOIL from Haiti

by: vox humana

Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 21:31:08 PM EST

They do this in various ways, one of the most interesting and practical being to provide composting toilets for families and for communities, as well as doing work in recycling and composting in general. It would appear that their expertise will be particularly useful now. They also appear to be an organization that is popular within Haiti, as demand for their sanitation services could not keep up with supply before the earthquake.

I highly recommend this group and their website and Facebook page to your attention. If you visit these sites, you may find yourself wandering about them for quite some time, as they are fascinating. Since her entry is excellent, I will share it below in its entirety. It confirms what many of us have suspected all along: that the claims of violence and lawlessness have been exaggerated in the interest of presenting a "juicier" story. But her writing is much better:

Should U.S. troops mutiny like they do in 'Avatar'?

by: fairleft

Tue Dec 29, 2009 at 17:54:41 PM EST

Michelle Rodriquez as Trudy Chacon in 'Avatar'

It definitely seems morally right to side with the colonized against the colonizer and preemptive invader, the U.S. and the Western invaders now so nakedly aggressively imperialist toward the third world. NGOs' feeble cover stories notwithstanding, poor people and poor countries are there for the rich and powerful to exploit, otherwise they are ignored.

But much much better never to join the military as it is now, and I think 'Avatar' can be an impactful as hell anti-recruitment propaganda video for U.S. high school kids. You really don't want to join the corporate mercenary imperial shock troops burning down and blowing up native villages and all inside. Those are the bad guys, the assholes, the macho airheads, not the heroes.

But, the above interpretation of U.S. military conduct in the world, though the obvious one, requires wide social support, by you and me, especially all over the progressive blogs and whineytopia. We must counter the huge corporate media lie, the 'our troops are heroes' bullshit. Make it so my army of progressive and left bloggers!! Talk up Avatar's anti-colonial, pro-resistance, anti-U.S.-military-recruitment meaning everywhere your blogging selves reach.

24 Percent, in Avatar And Anti-Colonial Resistance, explains Michelle/Trudy joining the resistance, turning her guns on her former mercenary mates:

The Na'vi . . . win for real, sending the colonizers - represented by the corporate-military alliance of Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and the K.I.A. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) back to Earth at the barrels of guns or in pieces. But it isn't just theNa'vi sending the invaders away, the scientific team (Skully, Dr. Augustine, avatar guide and science dork Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), their military pilot Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) and Dr. Max Patel (Dileep Rao)) joins the Na'vi very quickly. There is no discussion of non-violent resistance or any real attempt to negotiate, the intellectuals - including all the women and people of color among the humans - show no hesitation in siding with the the colonized against the colonizer and shooting humans. By the end of the film we have a clear division between the white male capitalist imperialists fighting ruthlessly for profit and everyone else siding with the indigenous Na'vi fighting to save their homeland. The best line in the movie is when Quaritch says to Skully in the heat of battle, "How does it feel to be a traitor to your race?" The film's answer is: Great! In this way, Trudy is perhaps the most interesting character. She's a member of the military, but through her contact with the scientists gains empathy for the Na'vi. She refuses to fire missiles at the natives' home, this is according to the traditional script. But what isn't is when she rapidly turns her guns on her fellow soldiers. There's no discussion of how she knows the men on the other side and has served with them, nothing about their wives and kids. She dies in combat, and there was never a question of an ethical third-way.

Happy News!

by: vox humana

Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 01:00:41 AM EST

I'm a Cassandra 2, knew Obama was gonna do this 2 years ago

by: fairleft

Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 13:01:16 PM EST

65% of Democrats Back Hillary/Obama? R They Crazy?

by fairleft
Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 04:28:36 PM EST

Why are Hillary and Obama the Democratic voters' leading presidential candidates -- 65% of likely primary voters choose them --when they're so obviously bipartisan police-state corporate-whore imperialist Republicans?

My sane way of choosing a candidate or deciding to say fuk `em all is to look at their positions on the major issues of the day. I don't ask much anymore, just "Hey, if she/he would do the right thing on even ONE of the big issues, maybe I could see myself giving her/him my vote." So here are my six major issues and best guesses on what Obama/Hillary's real positions are (I know Hillary & Obama don't actually say the following, but their money has the following `bipartisan' & `responsible' positions, and neither has taken a strong and (especially) clear enough position contrariwise to make me think they will disobey their money):

[I realize the Iran prediction so far is wrong, but we've still got three years on that.]

Attack the Troops (War Criminals III, Support the Non-Troops II)

by: fairleft

Thu Dec 10, 2009 at 13:23:08 PM EST

Eva Golinger: Did people in your class [at Evergreen University] know you were in the military? What did they say to you?

Josh Simpson: Yes, but people knew I was opposed to the war.

Benji Lewis: The "support the troops" campaign has altered everyone's perception.

Simpson: I'm actually opposed to that campaign. People should have been more confrontational with the troops.

Golinger: Like in Vietnam.

Lewis: The "support the troops" campaign was engineered to allow for indirect acceptance of the war.

Simpson: People are scared to criticize the troops, it's considered the most blasphemous thing in the world. At the same time, if you are never criticized then you will never know that what you are doing is wrong.

Lewis: You can't criticize the troops. It's a poverty draft, these kids just do it because they have no other way out of poverty.

Simpson: But you have to criticize them, because they will say they are just following orders, but that's bullshit, the Nazis were just following orders too. The military is fascist, it's basically blind, unquestioning obedience. Then they try to tell you that the blind obedience is some form of courage and bravery. It's much easier to go with the current than against it. While I was at Evergreen [University] I was learning something different than what I was told in the military. I got to the point where morally I couldn't just be opposed to the war, I also couldn't even participate in the military or train other soldiers to go kill people in a racist war.

The above (emphasis added) is an excerpt from Venezuelan-American lawyer and journalist Eva Golinger's September interview (which I've just unearthed) of two Iraq war veterans (see PROFILES below for short bios of all three), which provides further insight into how U.S. troops conduct themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of us who pay for these wars must confront this knowledge, especially those Americans and others who support or do not sufficiently oppose President Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan wars. . . .

CODE PINK TURNS PRO WAR

by: Stu Piddy

Wed Oct 07, 2009 at 18:55:42 PM EDT

The anti-war group Code Pink, which rose to prominence with high-profile protests against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars over the past seven years, is softening its stance against the war in Afghanistan over concerns that a troop withdrawal could harm women's rights in the country.

"We would leave with the same parameters of an exit strategy but we might perhaps be more flexible about a timeline," Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin told the Christian Science Monitor. "That's where we have opened ourselves ... to some other possibilities. We have been feeling a sense of fear of the people of the return of the Taliban. So many people are saying that, 'If the US troops left the country, would collapse. We'd go into civil war.' A palpable sense of fear that is making us start to reconsider that."

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/re...

The last vestiges of any kind of morality, any kind of anything are quickly disintegrating as the U.S. continues its metamorphosis from butterfly to worm into a full fledged fascist state.

The mindless American liberal now throws his lot in with Obama, a man destined to become the greatest WAR president in history.

The photo Obama & Gates don't want you to see

by: fairleft

Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 15:26:25 PM EDT

Photographs are death to a war, boys and girls. They can asphyxiate a war faster than roadside bombs can even dream. Gates does not want the sprawling, somnolent, inattentive beast, the public, to see what his wars really are. -- Fred Reed, Vietnam War Vet

Although it is not a direct response, I can't think of a better answer to vox humana's concerns (see more in P.S.) about showing the truth of war than an essay by Fred Reed (excerpted below the fold). Reed is reacting to Secretary of War Robert Gates getting upset a day or two ago because the AP decided to publish a photograph of the death of American soldier Joshua Bernard in Afghanistan.

Here's what Gates said:

"I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard's death has caused his family. Why your organisation would purposefully defy the family's wishes, knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish, is beyond me.

"Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling."

Here's some of Fred Reed's response:

Depression Glass, Through the Looking

by: vox humana

Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 23:25:18 PM EDT

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Here is a story of a laborer, told in his own words. Cause for hope or for despair? How does it end? And why do times always seem so much simpler when they are not our own?

Thank goodness the WPA collected these stories; otherwise we would have no idea what it was like. So much is different for laborers now. I have taken the liberty to bold items that might be puzzling to the modern reader, not having experienced them.

And remember, people read text back then... no pictures; so tread with care.

Dear Antiwar New Englander

by: fairleft

Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 12:28:07 PM EDT

"It is not the president who is in power, it is not the party that is in power, it is the system that stays the same, no matter who is in charge. . . . We are here to make the wars unpopular again."

Dear Antiwar New Englander,

Cindy Sheehan is in Martha's Vineyard, protesting Obama's endless meaningless wars, as she was in Crawford, Texas to protest the other war party's endless meaningless wars. Except to the wars' dead and injured victims.

Why aren't you there?

fairleft

. . .

Orcinus site warns of fascism incipient

by: DavidByron

Sun Aug 09, 2009 at 17:47:28 PM EDT

There were certain signs -- one in particular -- we were keeping an eye out for, and we just weren't seeing it.

And now we are. In fact, if you know what you're looking for, it's suddenly everywhere.

The sign (the third on a list of five but apparently the most critical) is the alliance of the conservative elite with the violent right wing.  Obviously this is now happening in America but I have my doubts about whether this means fascism (in extended text).

The Stranger

by: Ormond Otvos

Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 23:51:58 PM EDT

I know that kind of man.
It's hard to hold the hand of anyone
who's reaching for the sky just to surrender.

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
you find he did not leave you very much, not even laughter.
Like any dealer he was watching for the card so high and wild
he knows he'll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

Then leaning on your window sill
he'll say one day you caused his will
to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter,
And taking from his wallet an old schedule of trains,
he'll say "I told you when I came I was a stranger..."

But now another stranger seems
to want you to ignore his dreams
as though they were the burden of some other.
O, you've seen that man before,
his golden arm dispatching cards
but now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter

Ah, you hate to see another tired man lay down his hand
and giving up his holy game of poker,
And while he talks his dreams to sleep
you notice there's a highway
that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder

You tell him to come in, sit down
but something makes you turn around,
the door is open - you can't close your shelter.
You try the handle of the road, it opens, do not be afraid
It's you my love, it's you who are the stranger

Well, I've been waiting, I was sure
we'd meet between the trains we're waiting for,
I think it's time to board another.
Please understand, I never had a secret charm
to get me to
the heart of this or any other matter.
When he talks like this you don't know what he's after

Let's meet tomorrow if you choose
upon the shore, beneath the bridge
that they are building on some endless river.
Then he leaves the platform
for the sleeping car that's warm
You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say ok the bridge or someplace later.

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind ...
And leaning on your window sill ...
I told you when I came I was a stranger.