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

This is just a quicker way to do it.

"Acts of God, Acts of Media" http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_16899.shtml

"Whitehouse considered Geneva convention overhaul" http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-geneva7jan07,0,5696264.story

Gonzales and Torture: It's Not Only Illegal, It's Wrong
By Ray R. McGovern http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010805D.shtml

'The west's crusaders, the United States and Britain, are giving less to help the tsunami victims than the cost of a Stealth bomber or a week's bloody occupation of Iraq. The bill for George Bush's coming inauguration party would rebuild much of the coastline of Sri Lanka. Bush and Blair increased their first driblets of "aid" only when it became clear that people all over the world were spontaneously giving millions and that a public relations problem beckoned. The Blair government's current "generous" contribution is one-sixteenth of the £800m it spent on bombing Iraq before the invasion and barely one-twentieth of a £1bn gift, known as a soft loan, to the Indonesian military so that it could acquire Hawk fighter-bombers.

On 24 November, one month before the tsunami struck, the Blair government gave its backing to an arms fair in Jakarta, "designed to meet an urgent need for the [Indonesian] armed forces to review its defence capabilities", reported the Jakarta Post. The Indonesian military, responsible for genocide in East Timor, has killed more than 20,000 civilians and "insurgents" in Aceh. Among the exhibitors at the arms fair was Rolls-Royce, manufacturer of engines for the Hawks, which, along with British-supplied Scorpion armoured vehicles, machine-guns and ammunition, were terrorising and killing people in Aceh up to the day the tsunami devastated the province.'

"The Other Tsunami" http://www.newstatesman.com/nscoverstory.htm

"Vote, declare victory and come home" http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/galloway/10579874.htm

well, I'm liable to regret it, but I've started an Ask H2G2 thread on the Vote, Declare Victory and Come Home article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F19585?thread=562806

I'll be watching Rev.

In the mean time, here's a little gem from Newsweek:

"?The Salvador Option?
The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/

Actually, that one is just too good. I'm going to put it into the Forum myself.

'The Presidential Inauguration Committee intends to forge ahead with its resplendent plans for the second Bush inaugural. At the risk of sounding like a Grand Old Party pooper, I'm not thrilled.

What gives me pause is the decision to spend some $40 million-plus at this moment in history. When I first began mulling over this expenditure, I thought it quite unseemly that, at a time when so many Americans and countless Iraqis have been and will be killed and maimed, we should be mounting a spectacle said to celebrate our troops, replete with nine official balls, many unofficial affairs, a youth concert, a parade, a fireworks display, etc. (and, at the Ritz-Carlton, white chocolate cowboy boots). But now, with the appalling misery in Southeast Asia added to the scene, it seems even more obvious that an extravaganza is wholly inappropriate.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57877-2005Jan7.html

'Congress passes `doomsday' plan' http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=62564

'Dear Mr. Gonzales'

"Mr. Gonzales, you have concurred in, even commissioned, advice that led to the following:
Sodomy with a broomstick, chemical light, metal object

Severe beatings

Water boarding (simulated drowning)

Electric shock

Attaching electrodes to private parts

Forced masturbation

Pulling out fingernails

Pushing lit cigarettes into ears

Chaining hand and foot in fetal position without food or water

Forced standing on one leg in the sun

Feigned suffocation

Gagging with duct tape

Tormenting with loud music and strobe lights

Sleep deprivation

Hooding

Subjecting to freezing/sweltering temperatures

"Dietary manipulation"

Repeated, prolonged rectal exams

Hanging by arms from hooks

Permitting serious dog bites

Bending back fingers

Intense isolation for more than 3 months

Grabbing genitals

Severe burning

Stacking of naked prisoners in pyramids

Injecting with drugs

Leaving bullet in body of wounded prisoner

Taping naked prisoner to board

Shooting into containers with men inside

Keeping prisoners in small, outdoor cages

Pepper spraying in face

Forcing heads into toilets and flushing

Threatening live burial, drowning, electrocution, rape and death

Beating prisoners to death

Killing wounded prisoners

Throwing off bridge into river and drowning

Rape

Murder

Saddam Hussein would be proud of you, Mr. Gonzales."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011005A.shtml

That's right kids - come up with a legal loophole that you think allows your nation to ignore the Geneva Convention and the rules of common human decency and you too could become Attorney General!

"Doctor's Orders -- Spill Your Guts"

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-brutality9jan09,1,7679659.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Another interesting opinion piece from Aljazeera:

'However, al-Shahwani's wishful thinking pales in comparison to the delusional ramblings of George Bush and his minions. With hundreds of thousands of coalition and Iraqi security forces battling insurgents and attempting to batten down Iraq under the iron grip of martial law - the American masterminds of this intervention are already claiming that America has "brought democracy to 28 million people".



No doubt this will be welcome news to those marines in Sumatra when they complete their humanitarian effort, reboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and sail back to continue a mission long since pronounced accomplished.'

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/546F50AD-6FBD-41D3-910B-2530E3F1896F.htm

Paging Dr. Mengle, please report to interrogation room 3.....

This one might interest somebody:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A3506168

'The New Monkey Trial' http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/10/evolution/index.html

'Let Bin Laden stay free, says CIA man' http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1431539,00.html

'These people are slicker than bus station chili' http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2005/1040

'First they came for the terrorists. . .' http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0110-33.htm

Drastic measures to avoid a second tour in Iraq: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/11/marine.shooting/index.html

'Bush's "Death Squads"' http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/011105.html

'The Conservative Marketing Squad' http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20946/

And for those of us who can manage French, a reminder from le Monde:

'Guantanamo, year 4' http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3208,36-393802,0.html

'Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?' http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer11jan11,0,4938608,print.column

Everybody got enough to read?

Here's one more. A reason to extend the ban on land-mines: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/01/12/tsunami-landmines050112.html

President of Fabricated Crises http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2304-2005Jan11

War Veteran Refuses 2nd Iraq Deployment http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBJECTING_SOLDIER?SITE=NYSTA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

U.S. Lowers Expectations On Iraq Vote
Process Emphasized, Not Turnout or Results http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5065-2005Jan12.html

Here's a follow-up to the original Newsweek story on the "Salvador Option" in Iraq: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6814001/site/newsweek/

And a bit about the prospective U.S. attorney general thinking that the President is above the law: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/08/news-corn.php