h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, fifteen years after the end of civil war in Lebanon the world is a safer place:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/14/beirut.explosion/index.html

Almost fifteen days after the election that was 'a death blow to the insurgency', Iraq is a safer place:

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=25508


etc.

Can anyone find some real, actual good news in the War on Terror? ('Madrid Skyscraper Fire Probably an Accident' doesn't count)

More about Rafiq al-Hariri's assassination:

'Who killed Rafiq al-Hariri?' By Christian Henderson http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA19EA2C-3683-4980-BFC6-666C15B07D41.htm

and

'Annan, Security Council condemn 'brutal murder' of former Lebanese Premier Hariri' http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=13336&Cr=middle&Cr1=lebanon

'Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All Major Roads into Baghdad' http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick02122005.html

Concerning "rendition" (shipping people off to be tortured without charge or hope and with little evidence):

'The U.S. Department of Justice may make legal history in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. citizen being held in Saudi Arabia without publicly disclosing its reasons, citing an ”extraordinarily high” government interest in protecting national security issues in the case.

Other instances in which courts based their decisions on ”secret information” have dealt with denial of a job or pilot's license. This case is about a man's freedom.

The citizen is Ahmed Abu Ali, a 23-year-old student who was arrested in Saudi Arabia in June 2003 while taking an exam at the University of Medina, and has since been held in a Saudi prison without charge or access to legal counsel.

Saudi authorities claim they have no case against Ali, and that his detention is at the behest of the U.S. government. The U.S. government responds it had nothing to do with his arrest or imprisonment, but has declined to publicly produce any evidence to document this claim.

Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited Ali during his detention, and the U.S. has reportedly asked Saudi authorities to indict Ali or return him to U.S. custody.

Ali's family charges that their son is a victim of ”rendition” -- a process in which suspects are taken to other countries and interrogated without the protection of U.S. laws. The practice is known to be used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other agencies. Frequently, the targets of ”rendition” are sent to or detained by countries known to torture prisoners.

At a hearing in Washington last week, Ori Levi, a Justice Department lawyer, told U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that while there is no legal precedent for dismissing the case, ”there's very little risk” that Ali has been wrongly deprived of his freedom.

”The government's interest here in protecting national security is extraordinarily high,” Levi said.'

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27435

So, an American Judge has been asked to rule on the legality of the Saudi Government holding a U.S. citizen without charge or trial indefinitely and, the U. S. Government lawyer is asking the judge to decide in favour of such action. But the Germans or Belgians better not arrest Rumsfeld for killing tens of thousands!

and

'The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq had a chaotic, "Wild West" approach to contracting there which opened up the system to abuse and waste, a former employee from the authority said Monday.

Ex-Coalition Provisional Authority official Franklin Willis cited examples of this "chaos" at a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and said he believed most abuse and waste could have been avoided.' http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7624934

'Wild West' how appropriate!

and

' A peoples tribunal has held much of Western media guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting of Iraq.

The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples initiative seeking the truth about the war and occupation in Iraq made its pronouncement Sunday after a three- day meeting. The tribunal heard testimony from independent journalists, media professors, activists, and member of the European Parliament Michele Santoro.

The Rome session of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London, Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon. The Rome meeting focused on the media role.

The informal panel of WTI judges accused the United States and the British governments of impeding journalists in performing their task, and intentionally producing lies and misinformation.

The panel accused western corporate media of filtering and suppressing information, and of marginalising and endangering independent journalists. More journalists were killed in a 14-month period in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam war.

The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan."' http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000198.php

We all know that we need to check what we read, right?

And, of course, the real War on Terror, the 9/11 thing, remember:

'Would George W. Bush have been reelected president if the public understood how much responsibility his administration bears for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed?

The answer is unknowable and, at this date, moot. Yet it was appalling to learn last week that the White House suppressed until after the election a damning report that exposes the administration as woefully incompetent if not criminally negligent. Belatedly declassified excerpts from still-secret sections of the 9/11 commission report, which focus on the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to heed multiple warnings that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to hijack planes as suicide weapons, make clear that this tragedy could have been avoided.

For the last three years, administration apologists have tried to make the FAA the scapegoat for the 9/11 attacks. But it is the president who ultimately is responsible for national security, not a defanged agency that is beholden to the industry it allegedly monitors.

The terrible fact is that the administration took none of the steps that would have put the protection of human life ahead of a diverse set of economic and political interests, which included not offending our friends the Saudis and not hurting the share prices of airline corporations.' http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer15feb15,0,1840787.column?coll=la-util-op-ed

And, as a footnote, remember all those poor American pilots that were captured and tortured by Iraq during the first Gulf War (which was actually the Second Gulf War if you really look at history)? Well, Mr. Bush is telling them to F off as far as their compensation goes:

'The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.

The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The rationale: Today's Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

The case abounds with ironies. It pits the U.S. government squarely against its own war heroes and the Geneva Convention.

Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago. Those Iraqi victims, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said, deserve compensation from the United States.'

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-pow15feb15,0,3155150.story?coll=la-home-headlines


I'm certainly not going to post any of these links on the Forum because that would just be 'America Bashing'. I certainly can't stop anyone else, however.

speaking of American pilots disowned by their government:

'They caught it at Dien Bien Phu, a cluster of villages in a valley ringed by mountains near the Laotian border. Communist rebels on higher ground pummeled the French with artillery in an epic battle that marked the end of French colonial rule in Indochina and foreshadowed the U.S. experience in Vietnam.

Next week, nearly 51 years after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the seven surviving American pilots who braved those perilous skies _ but later were essentially disowned by the CIA -- will be awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, or Legion of Honor, France's highest award for service.'

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/02/15/cia.pilots.ap/index.html

French Fries.

Finally! Evidence linking Al Qaeda and Iraq! (sort of)

'"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks," Goss said.'

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147880,00.html

So, Goss is saying that the invasion of Iraq (the centerpiece of the war on terror) has produced a 'potential pool' of terrorists.

Yearning for Yossarian?

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0910-08.htm

Mr. Noonan. It really has descended into the realm of black absurdity, hasn't it?

How goes the war on terror? Well, Rumsfeld is too busy to answer that question when his bosses ask him, why should anyone else try to answer it?

'Two dozen members of the House Armed Services Committee had not yet had their turn to question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at yesterday's hearings when he decided he had had enough.

At 12:54, he announced that at 1 p.m. he would be taking a break and then going to another hearing in the Senate. "We're going to have to get out and get lunch and get over there," he said. When the questioning continued for four more minutes, Rumsfeld picked up his briefcase and began to pack up his papers.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30800-2005Feb16.html

(Some of you may have seen me post this elsewhere)

Here's a real laugh from Gwynne Dyer:

'Bush recently remarked that he did not see "how you can be
president without a relationship with the Lord" -- so it is America's duty
and right to bring "freedom" to those who still live in darkness, both in
order to make itself safe and as a public service: "By our efforts, we have
lit...a fire in the hearts of men. It warms those who feel its power, it
burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of
freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world."

Bush speeches are a treasure-trove of innocent fun. His
speech-writers took the quote about having "lit a fire in the hearts of
men" from Fyodor Dostoevsky, presumably not realising that they were
quoting a bunch of terrorists who featured in his novel "The Devils," and
the "dark corners of the world" phrase pops up in every second Bush speech.'

http://www.gwynnedyer.net/articles/Gwynne%20Dyer%20article_%20%20%20Democracy%20and%20Rhetoric.txt




George WMD. Bush! Quoting Terrorists! From a book called The Devils!

I can't breathe!



I've got to go change my shorts.

Black absurdity continues to be an American way of life but I have unbounded optimism for America and it's people.

By late 1965 many Americans began to realize that something had gone horribly wrong with our war policies. By 1972 there were open calls from some of us to try Nixon and LBJ for war crimes. Some of us who were in uniform at the time chose to return our military decorations and urinate on the capitol steps in protest of continuing insane war policies. I am proud that we found a decent, brave and thoughtful American to run against Bush.

I am encouraged by my nephew, a marine recently returned from Iraq, who explained to me at some length that he was extremely disturbed by what he had seen of our treatment of the the native population and told me of disturbing rumours he had heard of our treatment of prisoners.

In my view, Americans are generally decent people who will not long continue to tolerate tyrants, drunks, fools or draft-dodgers and torturers.

That's Fred Noonan's 2 cents worth.

'In my view, Americans are generally decent people'

I absolutely agree, Fred, with a whole string of !!!!!!!!

I worry, however. Historically, no matter what the decency of a people, tyrants and torturers have found ways of disempowering those people and then committing terrible crimes in their name. I can't help but think that in my view, Germans also are generally decent people.

I beg your pardon, but history indicates that Americans are fundamentally different than Germans in the 1940 era.

For example, during the Mai Lai massacre in Viet Nam an American CWO landed his helicopter and had his crew train a machine gun on the poorly trained soldiers who were in the process of conducting a massacre of several hundred villagers. His name was Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson.

I don't believe that you will find reports anything similar in German history. This item about the butchering of Canadian soldiers in Normandy by SS Nazi fanatics doesn't have anything to say about "good Germans" intervening in the massacre.
http://grad.usask.ca/gateway/archive9.html

On the other hand, could these reports about Canadian atrocities in Somalia and Bosnia possibly be true?http://www.dann.ca/Backissues/paterso2.html

Yes, they are true. As are the stories about the Abbaye d'Ardenne. As are the stories about Abu Ghraib.

At no time did I say anything about Americans other than what you said yourself. I said something about tyrants and the fact that tyrants can take control of any country if given the chance.

I will not ever be heard suggesting that people, no matter their nationality, are anything other than people, or that any nationality is anything other than made up of generally good people. I don't apologise for suggesting that horrors of parallel to those of Nazism could happen in any country, and because of that possibility we must all -- each one of us -- be constantly on guard against the idea that somehow our particular patch of ground is blessed by God with any sort of moral superiority to the other patches.

I'm sorry if I've offended you by suggesting that bad governments happen to good nations, but I think it is the truth.

Forgot to mention:

It's not quite turning a machine gun on your fellow soldiers, but it is standing toe to toe with Hitler: http://www.pittnews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/08/4208ab3d54f01

How about a bomb? http://my.borderlessworld.de/archives/2004/07/a_german_hero.html

Toe to toe again.

They did do it.

Anahaga,

Count Von Staufenberg, the one-eyed, one-armed, inept German officer bomber has always been absolutely one of my favorite existential heros and an obvious example of an very brave and and good person..

Many other good and brave Germans disappeared into the camps and it was terribly thoughtless of me to momentarily forget that fact.

Thank you for correcting me.

Fred

No problem.

I'm heading for rest now.

Speaking of brave people who get forgotten:

'They're overmedicated, forced to talk about their mothers instead of Iraq, and have to fight for disability pay. Traumatized combat vets say the Army is failing them, and after a year following more than a dozen soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, I believe them.'

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021805D.shtml

Here's how the war on terror goes:

'The United States has long purported to be outraged over Syria's bad behavior, the latest flash point being the possible Syrian involvement in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri.

From the U.S. perspective, Syria is led by a gangster regime that has, among other things, sponsored terrorism, aided the insurgency in Iraq and engaged in torture. So here's the question. If Syria is such a bad actor - and it is - why would the Bush administration seize a Canadian citizen at Kennedy Airport in New York, put him on an executive jet, fly him in shackles to the Middle East and then hand him over to the Syrians, who promptly tortured him?

The administration is trying to have it both ways in its so-called war on terror. It claims to be fighting for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and it condemns barbaric behavior whenever it is committed by someone else. At the same time, it is engaged in its own barbaric behavior, while going out of its way to keep that behavior concealed from the American public and the world at large.

The man grabbed at Kennedy Airport and thrown by American officials into a Syrian nightmare was Maher Arar, a 34-year-old native of Syria who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. No one, not even the Syrians who tortured him, have been able to present any evidence linking him to terrorism.

He was taken into custody on the afternoon of Sept. 26, 2002, and was not released until Oct. 5, 2003. He was never charged, and when he wasn't being brutalized, he spent much of his time in an unlit, rat-infested cell that reminded him of a grave.'

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021805J.shtml

'President George W Bush added a new twist to the international tension over Iran's nuclear programme last night by pledging to support Israel if it tries to destroy the Islamic regime's capacity to make an atomic bomb.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/18/wiran18.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/18/ixnewstop.html

'On February 10, a jury in New York City convicted longtime activist attorney Lynne Stewart and two others on all counts in one of the Bush Administration's most heralded terrorism trials since 9/11. Stewart, a 65-year-old who has never committed a violent act, now faces twenty to thirty years in prison. Do you feel safer?'

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050307&s=cole

So, ship innocent Canadians to Syria for torture, throw 65 year old women into jail for the rest of their lives and offer support for unprovoked military attacks. Sorry, but it looks to me like the terrorists won.

'"We've tracked the number of attacks per day and what they can do is 50 to 60 attacks that they are able to conduct countrywide, with spikes. And that seems to be their capacity," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Myers, who testified with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, characterized the insurgency fighting some 150,000 U.S. forces in Iraq as "a limited capacity."'

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7666210

limited capacity.