When Torture Takes a Backseat

With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 quickly approaching and the news that ABC/Disney will be airing a historically innacurate docudrama about the lead up to that horrid day, activists from the grassroots to the highest levels of the former Democratic government have staunchly expressed their public outrage - demanding that the truth be presented to the American people.

I'd like to believe that perhaps it's a matter of bad timing or having the inability to walk and chew gum at the same time that the fact that, during this same week, when the President of the United States stood before his citizens and the world admitting to the existence of secret CIA prisons and the use of alternative methods of interrogation (torture) that a similar amount of public energy was not expressed about these stark, humiliating, and dangerous facts. That's what I'd like to believe, but I know that's not the truth.

What does it say about a country's citizens when they collectively choose not to rise up and demand once and for all that the brutality and lawlessness of their government come to an abrupt end?

This is not a partisan issue. That type of behaviour ought never be protected and anyone who would put their party before their country in the face of such blatant abuses simply doesn't understand what their responsibility as a citizen entails.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- Ben Franklin

How many times have we seen that quote since the reign of George W Bush began as he's been aided and abetted by his Republican congress to continually break the laws of the land, relying on terror and fearmongering to justify America's descent from a country of freedoms to a country whose government has such a tight grip on its people that individual privacy has virtually been wiped out? A country in which an undercurrent of defeatism so rules the day that its citizens are only able to muster a small cry of horror against the human rights abuses perpetrated by its government. A country in which the Democrats, who also had control over the CIA's actions for decades as well without rooting out torture, are seen as the saviours of America's reputation. A country whose governmental system is so corrupted by powermongers and greed that the citizenry feels overwhelmingly powerless.

When a country's president admits the most horrendous abuses and the rest of the government and its public can't even muster the energy rallied to protest over historical innacuracies in a television film to protest those actions, what's a foreigner like me to conclude? If I didn't regard those who've been tortured as citizens of the world or if my fellow countrymen hadn't been subjected to that type of cruelty, as in the cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr, maybe I could just stop caring too. Maybe I could just focus on ABC and Disney and their fakery in The Path to 9/11. Maybe I could just stop writing about Americans and their diseased government. Maybe I could just give up and watch the deserved fall of the American empire into the abyss of hell. Maybe I could just give up as well because that's certainly the way I feel some days - that resistance is futile and that I've lost my faith in my neighbours to the south to actually change what's happened to their country.

It's contrary to my nature, however, to not scream in opposition to torture; to not fight in the midst of lawlessness; to not sit back and take it when peoples' rights are infringed; to not demand justice for the victims of this inhumanity. So, I'm held hostage by the fact that I do care; that I won't live in a world where an American president can so cavalierly endorse destroying human beings in his custody; that I won't fear the powers of secret torturers like the CIA and that I won't stand for the complicity of Americans who don't give a damn about people being abused in their name while they look away and pretend nothing's happening. No.

Anyone who supports the use of torture is as guilty as those who actually inflict the pain. And a country's citizenry that can't even manage to rally those who oppose such practices to the level they've managed to over a fake television recounting of 9/11 will not be enabled by this foreigner. Not anymore. Your salvation isn't to be found in the Democrats - many of whom have been complicit in endorsing these methods. It's to be found in a major overhaul of your government system. And, if there's no energy left in America to take that on, then poke away at docudramas and misleading campaign commercials and Joe Lieberman. Just know that the rest of the world is watching and we're not willing to take it anymore.

Today's My Birthday

I'm old(er) again...so have some cake.


I share(d) my birthday with Peter Sellers (one of my all-time favourites) and I'm a practical idealist as well as being a healer idealist. I just ooze idealism. No wonder I end up banging my head against the wall over right-wing shenanigans every single day.

I'm sleeping in. Carry on without me.

P.S.: Can one of you save the world while I'm snoozing? That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Random News & Views Roundup

- The Democrats have sent a scathing letter to Disney president Robert Iger about his company's decision to air The Path to 9/11. They also provide a form for concerned people to fill out to add their names to the growing chorus opposed to the presentation of this fictitious piece of revisionist history. If you haven't done so already, do your part.

- Scholastic, under fire for promoting this docudrama as historical fact via classroom teaching plans, has posted a statement on its site to cover its butt.

- Anyone who would try to justify the lies in The Path to 9/11 - aided by the New York Times - qualifies as the wanker of the day. Absolutely pathetic.

- European watchdog calls for clampdown on CIA.

The head of Europe's human rights watchdog yesterday called for monitoring of CIA agents operating in Britain and other European countries, after President George Bush's admission that the US had detained terrorist suspects in secret prisons.
[...]
Mr [Terry] Davis also called for a ban on the transport of suspects in military aircraft. At the moment the prohibition applies only to civil aircraft.

The former British Labour MP was scathing about President Bush. "Why does the US need to keep people in secret prisons? I thought that was settled by Magna Carta. But King John is alive and well and running the USA.

"There is a smoking gun. We know where it is - it is in the hands of George Bush. His fingerprints are on the gun."

Amen to that and it's about bloody time.

- John Bolton's confirmation hearing has been called off for now because there's no guarantee it will make it out of committee this time around. Let's hope he's toast.

- The US Embassy was the scene of a bomb blast on Friday.

KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded close to the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Friday. Witnesses said they saw at least four bodies they presumed were dead.

The blast occurred at a major intersection less than 100 meters (yards) from the heavily fortified embassy.

That's all we know so far.

Update: AP reports that 3 people were killed, 2 of which were coalition soldiers. There are also media reports that the source was a car bomb. BBC has a different report entirely.

Update: CNN has more. 18 people were killed and 29 were wounded.

- The US senate has given the Pentagon another $469 billion and has reinstated the CIA group charged with hunting down bin Laden. Yes, 'reinstated'. They needed some time off to drink Mai Tais in Hawaii, apparently.

- Here's a headline that's sure to bring you some comfort: FAA Cracks Down on Air Controllers Naps.

- Good news for those 'Ohio fraudsters' who were so ridiculed at Daily Kos following the 2004 election: a judge has ordered that the ballots be kept instead of being disposed of as they were supposed to be some 22 months after the election so they can be available as evidence in a lawsuits filed contesting the results. This ain't over til it's over.

- Reuters list of security incidents in Iraq for Sept 7 include the discovery of a beheaded woman who was tortured. I don't recall CNN running that story.

New Liberal Leadership Poll Numbers

I had just e-mailed Scott at Progressive Bloggers earlier today (because he is a font of wisdom - do I get that $10 now?) to see if he had any recent numbers on the Liberal leadership candidates and lo and behold, he and I discovered two different news stories at the same time about a freshly released poll with numbers that may be a bit of a surprise to some of you out there.

"Mr. Ignatieff, despite being the perceived front-runner and having considerable media attention, has not been able to put real distance between himself and the others, when it comes to voter impressions," Decima's Bruce Anderson said in a release.

When voters who aren't sure are taken out of the mix, former Ontario premier Bob Rae inches ahead of the others: 26 per cent of respondents said they would vote Liberal or consider voting Liberal if Rae were at the party's helm, compared with 23 per cent for former cabinet minister Stephane Dion and 21 per cent for Ignatieff.

In Ontario, Rae has an even wider lead over the perceived front-runner, with 11 per cent more voters saying they would vote Liberal or consider voting Liberal if he were leader than if Ignatieff won.

The poll was conducted between Aug. 31 and Sept.4 by telephone. The results are based on a sample of just over 1,000 adult Canadians and are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Maybe there's hope for an actual left-wing swing after all.

O'Connor: Afghanistan War Won't be Won Militarily

When pacifists, liberals and other critics of Canada's military role in Afghanistan have suggested that the war there would not be won militarily, we were heaped with scorn, accused of wanting to cut and run and were told that we were dishonouring Canada's soldiers. What will those same people say now that Canada's Defence Minister, Gordon O'Connor, has said exactly the same thing?

CANBERRA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - NATO forces would quash the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan but the guerrillas would never be fully defeated by military force, Canadian Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said on Thursday.

Instead, he said it was crucial for NATO and Afghan forces to contain the Taliban and ensure the hardline Islamist group did not become a threat in more peaceful areas.

"We cannot eliminate the Taliban, not militarily anyway," O'Connor told Reuters in an interview. "We've got to get them back to some kind of acceptable level, so they don't threaten other areas."

O'Coonor also did some public whining about the troop levels - something he should have considered when his government pushed for a fast and dirty vote this past spring to extend Canada's role in the NATO mission another two years.

O'Connor expressed frustration at what he said was the unequal burden Canadian, British and U.S. troops were shouldering, and said he would raise the issue of other nations sending more troops to help out in Kandahar and other southern areas at a NATO meeting this month.

At least five Canadian soldiers have died in Operation Medusa and 14 British troops were killed when their plane crashed early in the offensive.

O'Connor discussed Afghanistan with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson in Canberra, but said he did not ask Australia to redeploy any of its 600 troops, mainly working with Dutch NATO forces in the safer central-east.

"I did mention that all loads aren't equal, let's put it that way," O'Connor said, adding he would raise the issue at a NATO defence ministers meeting in Slovenia from Sept. 28.

"I expect the British will also raise that issue."

Another US-led war without a plan or an end in site and Canada's Defence Minister is still determined that our soldiers will continue to die in Afghanistan, stubbornly sticking to the new NATO committment without any promises for a review based on the circumstances on the ground.

If there's anyone dishonouring our troops, it's this Conservative government and its Rumsfeldian puppet of a Defence minister, Gordon O'Connor.

Nobody Owes Karl Rove an Apology

Wanker of the day, David Broder, writes in the Washington Post that Karl Rove is due an apology from people who suspected he was behind the outing of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame in 2003. This comes on the same day that Richard Armitage was finally allowed to speak publicly about his role in the case.

“It was a terrible error on my part,” Mr. Armitage said in an interview. He added, “ There wasn’t a day when I didn’t feel like I had let down the President, the Secretary of State, my colleagues, my family and the Wilsons. I value my ability to keep state secrets. This was bad and I really felt badly about this.”

Mr. Armitage also confirmed that he was the anonymous government official who talked to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in June 2003 about Valerie Plame Wilson, the C.I.A. officer, in what is the first known conversation between an administration official and a journalist concerning her.

Mr. Armitage, who has been criticized for keeping his silence for nearly three years, said he had wanted to disclose his role as soon as he realized that he was the main source for Robert D. Novak’s column, published on July 14, 2003, which identified Ms. Wilson as a C.I.A. intelligence officer.

But he said held back at the request of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor. “He requested that I remain silent,” Mr. Armitage, said.

Expressing irritation over assertions in some newspaper editorials and on some Internet blogs that, by his silence, he had been disloyal to the Bush administration, Mr. Armitage said that he had followed Mr. Bush’s repeated instruction to administration officials to cooperate with the Fitzgerald inquiry.

“I felt like I was doing exactly what he wanted,” he said.

Mr. Armitage testified three times to the grand jury, the last time in December 2005. “I was never subpoenaed,” he said. “I was a cooperating witness from the beginning.”

He said he never hired a lawyer and did not believe that he needed one. “I had made an inadvertent mistake, but a mistake in any event. I deserved whatever was coming to me. And I didn’t need an attorney to tell the truth.”

That ought to put some questions to rest but it doesn't let Rove, Libby or Cheney off the hook, especially since Fitzgerald's investigation hasn't concluded and Libby's trial has yet to begin.

So, while David Broder may want the masses and his fellow journalists to bow before the great, innocent and maligned Rove in a case in which Broder admits that he thought was no big deal in the first place (the possible outing of an undercover agent was not even important enough for Broder to spend any time or effort writing about, according to him), he's spoken far too soon.

Rove was summarily demoted this past spring and the GOP has lost faith in his guidance. His rise and fall are not attributable to anyone but Mr Rove himself and for all of the people he's stepped on and over without any regard all of these years to be asked to apologize to one of the most vicious political players Washington has ever known is an affront of major proportions. In the end, no matter what is finally known about the Plame outing, there will be no doubt that Rove did contribute to her demise and that those who have pointed the finger at him as being one of this administration's main architects of smear and destroy politics - his stock in trade - will have been justified. Broder would do well to ask Rove to apologize to everyone he's wronged along the way.

The Real Path to 9/11

Condoleezza Rice facing the 9/11 Commission


Rice's lies vs Richard Clarke's truth.

ABC, Corporate Masters, Politics & Propaganda

Howard Beale: Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?
- from the movie Network, 1976

It's election season in the United States and once again the public will be fed misinformation, lies, distortions and goddamn propaganda attempting to smear the Democrats by one of the major television networks, ABC, with the airing of The Path to 9/11. If you've kept up with American politics, you'll remember the swift boating of John Kerry just prior to the 2004 election. Truth, it seems, is not a major concern of network television brass and their power to influence the public in political matters based on the programming they choose is immense.

After Network's fictional crazed messianic anchorman Howard Beale went on a verbal rampage on his television show upon hearing that the Saudis were in a deal to buy the network he worked for - prompting viewers to send millions of letters to the White House to stop the takeover - he was called into the office of Arthur Jensen who did his own bit of evangelizing to spell out the lay of the corporate land:

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal - that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians! There are no Arabs! There are no Third Worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic, and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT and T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon - those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state - Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and mini-max solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.

'Why me'?, asks Beale, to which Jensen responds, 'Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.'

So, while thousands of ABC's viewers and prominent Democratic politicians like Bill Clinton are mad as hell, publicly protesting the fictionalized version of 9/11 that ABC will air this weekend, the power of the film's propaganda will reach out and become truth to millions of people - the type of people who still choose to believe that Saddam had WMDs and had something to do with 9/11 despite all of the actual facts to the contrary and who only become incensed when someone of their ilk is the target of misinformation and slurs.

Is there democracy in America or is there only business (as usual)?

It would seem that when one suspicious voting machine corporation like Diebold can provide a win for the Republicans in a federal election; when one or more major television networks that are behoden only to their shareholders who care more about money than truth; when corporate lobbyists have the real power in DC and every single state; when oil interests fuel wars; when conglomerates hide their money in the Cayman Islands while securing tax cuts and subsidies from the American government; when corporations can make or break small town America; when capitalism becomes plutocracy - there is no such thing as democracy anymore. There's only the worship of money at the altar of greed. Or, as Arthur Jensen put it: 'One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit'.

And that is the real truth.

Don't Pray While You Fly

It was insulting enough to learn that a Canadian Muslim doctor was kicked off a plane for praying while flying a few weeks ago. Now, it's happened to an Orthodox Jewish man as well.

The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous.

"The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.

The man, who spoke neither English nor French, was escorted off the airplane.

Air Canada Jazz termed the situation "delicate," but says it received more than one complaint about the man's behaviour.

Can you imagine the fear this man had when this happened while he had no idea why he was being removed because he didn't have an interpreter? And why did the flight attendant have to mention that he wasn't Muslim - as if that would have been enough to get him booted and/or calm other passengers in the first place?

The B'nai Brith told CBC that it will offer sensitivity training to Air Canada employees. Fine. Now how about offering common sense training to all passengers when they board or perhaps posting a sign warning that some people may actually pray while they fly and that such behaviour is not, in fact, a terrorist threat?

Random News & Views Roundup

- Canada's Conservative party will be spending some time in court after being sued by members whose nominations were refused without any stated reasons. I thought theirs was the party of transparency and accountability. Hmmm...

- Crisis in the Blair government. If he'd just tell everybody when he's actually going to quit, he could avoid resignations within his party.

- Think Progress reveals that ABC has refused to provide advance copies of its controversial docudrama The Path to 9/11 to former president Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger. Berger and Albright have written letters to ABC blasting the drama's version of the so-called facts it presents. E&P has more. Via Daily Kos, at least one ABC affiliate has said it will run disclaimers throughout the airing.

- During today's senate debate, Senator John Warner (R-VA) stated that one of the main reasons for US troops to remain in Iraq is in order to protect that country's oil reserves from falling into terrorist hands - thus providing them with a major source of funding. It's not about democracy. It's not about freedom. It's all about oil. I don't know how many times people have to be reminded about that fact before it actually sinks in. Meanwhile, the US has lost control of al-Anbar - a very serious setback that could affect the entire security situation in Iraq.

- Iraq is finally set to take command control of its forces on Thursday. As a few senators remarked during Wednesday's debate, Bush has repeatedly stated that as soon as the Iraqis stand up, the US will stand down. It's reported that 85% of Iraq's troops are trained and ready, yet Buscho still refuses to scale back its military operations. (See above re: oil) Also, take note of the last sentence in that AP article:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said the arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command took place in June and was the most significant blow to the terror network since the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Caldwell said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured on June 19 — not a few days ago as the Iraqi government had initially announced.

It's quite obvious that the announcement of that arrest was timed to coincide with Bush's little war on terror crusade in the press the past couple of weeks.

- Read about the complicity of the American Psychological Association in US torture.

- The big headline in Wednesday's Calgary Herald: Bush says Canada breeds terrorists. catnip's response: Bush Breeds Anti-Americanism.

- This is a bad phrasing choice for Michael Ignatieff: Ignatieff launches 'nation building' campaign at a time when the US empire is under fire for its nation building attempts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ignatieff's plan for Canada's future should surely have been given a name that would not evoke thoughts of those failures.

- Best Guess blog provides an in depth analysis of the major issues involved for Democrats and Republicans on this year's campaign trail.