War on Terror

The sort of “dialogue” the US so far has encouraged the Egyptian government in

Real Life Revolutions, Torture, US Foreign Policy, War on Terror
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“So I’m lying on the floor, stomach down, legs up, hands behind my back, my cheek on the floor, and then all of a sudden, the closest thing that I could think of really, to describe it, was someone pouring lava on my soles. That felt like nothing I could describe. I flipped from the pain. I just flipped and grabbed my legs. Of course, during all that time it’s insults, calling me names, kicking me. So they got me back down, but now so that I don’t flip again, one guy stood over my head, one guy stood over my back, and the others were kicking me with their wooden soled shoes, and another guy was beating my soles with the cables he had…”

What happened to victims of the US’ War on Terror who were sent to Egypt: “If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear—never to see them again—you send them to Egypt.” – Robert Baer, former CIA case officer. One more reason for the US to keep supporting Mubarak and not be too keen on a genuinely democratic revolution as is happening now to actually succeed. Who knows what will come out…

Terrorists attack here

Manufacturing consent, US Foreign Policy, War on Terror
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Wikileaks has released a list of locations of strategic interest to the United States which has prompted a flood of criticism from the US and its bootlickers, like Malcolm Rifkind accusing Wikileaks from aiding terrorists:

The list is “a gift to any terrorist (group) trying to work out what are the ways in which it can damage the United States,” said Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee in Britain.

“It is grossly improper and irresponsible” for Assange and his website to publish that information, he said.

Oh Rly?

Let’s look at the Dutch locations on that list, shall we?

Netherlands: Atlantic Crossing-1 (AC-1) undersea cable landing Beverwijk, Netherlands TAT-14 undersea cable landing, Katwijk, Netherlands Rotterdam Port

Two internet connection points and the Rotterdam harbour. Inconcievable that terrorists would think of these targets on their own.

More seriously, the target list here might be of strategic interest to the US, but it’s of little value to any really existing terrorists, rather than the phantom menace conjured up by State Deparment spokepersons. Yes, terrorists could more easily attack a soft target like the e.g. anti-snake venom plant in Italy that’s also mentioned than something like the Statue of Liberty, but this assumes that terrorists select their targets to cause maximum damage for minimal risk rather than for maximum publicity and, well, terror. Moreover,thinking that releasing this list is supporting terrorists because we need to hide important targets for them is the worst sort of security by obscurity. If your strategy depends on keeping that sort of basic information secret, you’ve lost already, as any sysadmin worth their salt knows already.

But then this is just outrage theatre and nobody responsible actually believes this, do they? Do they?

TSA screeners do not want to touch your junk either

US politics, War on Terror
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“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”

Just one quote from TSA airport screeners not happy with the new patdown rules. It turns out your average security guard does not want to touch other people’s junk for eight hours a day, the occasional pervert excepted, nor likes it when travellers get upset with them for having to do so. The comments thread gets a bit overboard, nazi comparisons flying fast and loose, so be careful.

A concrete example of US leadership on human rights

Civil liberties, Torture, War on Terror
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This op-ed by the US ambassador to the UN human Rights Commission Eileen Donahoe is devoid of reality that you have to laugh, if you don’t want to cry. Every paragraph is an exercise in chutzpah and quote worthy but this is I think the worst:

Time and again human rights defenders underscore the importance of our public statements as an essential tool against government repression. The power of truthful words, spoken by the United States, should never be denigrated or underestimated. Those words provide hope and courage to those who fight against the worst rights abuses.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth:

Former CIA agents have confirmed for the first time that the agency tortured prisoners at a “black site” detention center in north-eastern Poland at the height of the war on terror. According to the Associated Press, a former CIA agent identified only as “Albert” tortured the terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri multiple times with an electric drill at the converted Stare Kiejkuty military base near Szymany in the Masuria region of Poland.

Al-Nashiri is the suspected mastermind behind one of the first large al-Qaida attacks, which targeted the US destroyer USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden in October 2000. According to former CIA agents who prefered to remain anonymous, Albert tortured the suspect for two weeks in December 2002. The claim is backed up by a review by the CIA’s inspector general, which reads: “The debriefer entered the detainee’s cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded.”

Sure, apologists will claim that this was an “isolated incident”, a “bad apple”, that this does not happen anymore under Obama. Yet Guantanamo Bay is still open, the Obama administration uses the same excuse of national security Bush used to hide the details of what’s going on in its War on Terror and nobody is even talking about any of the other nodes in the American gulag. The United States is not leading the world in human rights, it’s leading the world in ignoring them.

QotD: the decline of America, as evidenced by Terry Jones

US politics, War on Terror
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Almost a decade of the War on Terror and some fucking hick “pastor” from bloody Florida is able to hold the country to ransom with his nazi book burning stunt. Says Jamie:

I suppose it could be argued for various reasons that they had no choice, but if anything that’s even worse news from the American perspective. They’ve reached the demagogue event horizon: the most obvious vulgar chancer thrown up by the whole War on Terror nonsense is taken with absolute seriousness by people who everybody else is supposed to take seriously.

It’s the logical outcome of a process in which the rightwing of America has been allowed to make itself more and more shrill withou adults stepping in and saying enough is enough. On the other hand, there have been loons like this all through American history; they just couldn’t be interviewed on CNN before.