The tireless Erdla, the better two-thirds of Gorilla’s Guides Dubhaltach, supplied this new Traumatic Brain Injury resource.
LegalView Relaunches Traumatic Brain Injury Portal To Include Information About the Injury Affecting Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
Denver, CO (PRWEB) January 15, 2008 -- LegalView.com, the number one resource for everything legal on the Internet, relaunches its traumatic brain injury (TBI) information portal to aid soldiers returning from the Middle East who suffer from this debilitating injury.
One of the most common injuries that American soldiers returning home after serving time in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Afghanistan, is TBI. American soldiers are exposed to a number of situations where they may encounter danger and experience TBI. Reports of IED explosions plague the headlines of daily news reports alongside reports of ineffective armor for soldiers. If a family member or friend has been injured and suffers from TBI, it is important that a traumatic brain injury lawyer is contacted to provide resources on the victim receiving help as well as compensation for their injury.
TBI is a serious and debilitating injury that can adversely affect an individual by disrupting motor and speech functions as well as contribute to a loss of hearing, an inability to walk or use appendages, a loss of social skills and balance. TBI can also cause paralysis, loss of sight as well as mental disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Millions of Americans experience a brain injury or deal with a friend or family member who suffers from TBI and its many side effects. It is imperative that a victim of this injury contacts a brain injury lawyer who can offer insight into potential compensation for an individual.
There are far too many links within this article to brong them all forward. If you want to learn more about this pernicious result of George Bu$h’s instability, I would encourage you to explore the piece and look for yourselves.
If you’re a veteran of OIL, OIF, or OEF, or have served six months on active duty since 9/11/201, I want you to know that the evil libruls in Massachusetts, who hate America so much they want to destroy everyone’s marriage by allowing same-gender couples to have the same rights you and I have, also hate the troops.
Hundreds of veterans' bonuses are going uncollected in the State of Massachusetts. Thanks to the state's Welcome Home Program, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans receive $1,000 while other veterans who served more than six months since Sept. 11, 2007 receive a $500 bonus. However, only about 13,000 of the state's 27,000 eligible residents have applied for the bonuses. Massachusetts veterans can call the State Treasurer's office at 617-367-9333, ext. 859, to request bonus application materials.
You can tell they hate the troops because they’re begging people who haven’t yet applied to call in for the application.
One day my man will come. He’ll be tall (or maybe short) broad-shouldered (or maybe slight) with a full head of flowing locks (unless he’s bald.)
One thing I do know is that he’ll be a rip-snorting progressive/liberal who will stand up in front of the nation’s video cameras and tell the truth. His eyes will flash the fire of outrage and smoke will pour out of his ears as he describes how my country was nearly dealt a death blow by criminals.
He’ll speak the truth about this corrupt political system we’ve got in this country. He’ll kook right into the camera’s fish-eye lens (ignoring the fish-faced media-drone standing alongside with a microphone and a pre-printed list of “gotcha” questions furnished by Corporate Headquarters) and he’ll say “The republican Party in this country is a pack of lying, stealing, skeaving warmongering poodle-fucking baby rapers. Each and every one of the national and state republican politicians would go to their children’s funerals and steal the pennies off their kids’ eyes.”
He won’t be afraid of the pearl-clutching bullcrap the republicans have trademarked. In fact, as one of them gets the vapors over what he said, my hero will gently push the Victorian fainting couch out of the way with the toe of his shoe, whistle innocently, and murmur solicitously when the faker lands on his fat wallet.
One day my man will come. (Sure my man could be a woman, but it won’t be Hillary Clinton, unfortunately.) Until my man comes I’ll just content myself with Dan Hartman fronting up the Sorels.
A representative of the VA sent Jesse Wendel of the Group News Blog an email after reading his carrying my original story about the “MkII Pencil test” of body armor. The email denied the truth of assertion by military officials that soldiers who wore Dragon Skin armor into combat would be penalized if they died. It was claimed that the soldiers beneficiaries would be denied the SGLI payment.
Jesse Wendel sent me a copy of an email he received regarding the SGLI denial story.
Folks:
My title is below. One of my responsibilities is managing the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program on behalf of the Department of Veterans Affairs. I have been involved in the SGLI program for nearly 30 years.
I can assure you, there is ZERO truth to the statement about SGLI not being payable if the service member is injured or killed while wearing or not wearing that Dragon body armor or any other item.
99% of active duty service members have elected to be insured under SGLI. Except for extraordinarily serious situations, such as treason, desertion, etc. SGLI death proceeds are always payable for those individuals. SGLI is 24/7 coverage, everywhere in the world, and is payable whether the death is combat-related or not.
Please correct your story, or at least advise your staffs to not repeat the erroneous information in the future. Thank you very much.
Steve
Jesse and I have taken it as accurate and honest in tone and tenor. There is no need to contact jim by phone or email and discuss the matter with him. It goes without saying there is no need to appoint oneself a soldiers’ collective representative and abuse him in anyway at all.
Obviously, the next step was to backtrack the SGLI denial story. This story emanates from a January 14, 2006 article written by Nathaniel Helms under the DefenseWatch subsection of the pro-soldier Soldiers For The Truth which was started and inspired by COL David Hackworth, one of the greatest infantry soldiers the US was ever honored to have wear its uniform.
Go read the original, which I have excerpted, and decide for yourself. Remember: the issue here is not whether soldiers were actually denied their SGLI benefits, but whether or not the Army intentionally, mendaciously and dishonorably lied to troops going into combat.
Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.
The soldiers asked for anonymity because they are concerned they will face retaliation for going public with the Army's apparently new directive. At the sources' requests DefenseWatch has also agreed not to reveal the unit at which the incident occured for operational security reasons.
On Saturday morning a soldier affected by the order reported to DefenseWatch that the directive specified that "all" commercially available body armor was prohibited. The soldier said the order came down Friday morning from Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command (HQ, USSOCOM), located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. [editor: Special Ops soldiers are usually not given to telling tall tales unless it is at a bar.] It arrived unexpectedly while his unit was preparing to deploy on combat operations. The soldier said the order was deeply disturbiing to many of the men who had used their own money to purchase Dragon Skin because it will affect both their mobility and ballistic protection. [emph added]
"We have to be able to move. It (Dragon Skin) is heavy, but it is made so we have mobility and the best ballistic protection out there. This is crazy. And they are threatening us with our benefits if we don't comply." he said.
The soldier reiterated Friday's reports that any soldier who refused to comply with the order and was subsequently killed in action "could" be denied the $400,000 death benefit provided by their SGLI life insurance policy as well as face disciplinary action.
As of this report Saturday morning the Army has not yet responded to a DefenseWatch inquiry.
…
One of the soldiers who lost his coveted Dragon Skin is a veteran operator. He reported that his commander expressed deep regret upon issuing his orders directing him to leave his Dragon Skin body armor behind. The commander reportedly told his subordinates that he "had no choice because the orders came from very high up" and had to be enforced, the soldier said. Another soldier's story was corroborated by his mother, who helped defray the $6,000 cost of buying the Dragon Skin, she said.
The mother of the soldier, who hails from the Providence, Rhode Island area, said she helped pay for the Dragon Skin as a Christmas present because her son told her it was "so much better" than the Interceptor OTV they expected to be issued when arriving in country for a combat tour.
"He didn't want to use that other stuff," she said. "He told me that if anything happened to him I am supposed to raise hell."
At the time the orders were issued the two soldiers had already loaded their Dragon Skin body armor onto the pallets being used to air freight their gear into the operational theater, the soldiers said. They subsequently removed it pursuant to their orders.
Currently nine U.S. generals stationed in Afghanistan are reportedly wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin body armor, according to company spokesman Paul Chopra. Chopra, a retired Army chief warrant officer and 20+-year pilot in the famed 160th "Nightstalkers" Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), said his company was merely told the generals wanted to "evaluate" the body armor in a combat environment. Chopra said he did not know the names of the general officers wearing the Dragon Skin. [emph added]
While searching to track down the original story which emanated from the Solders For The Truth webpage I happened upon this interesting tidbit:
Former Head of Army's Body Armor Program Under Criminal Investigation
Retired Army Colonel John D. Norwood (West Point '80), former head of the Army office responsible for body armor, is reported to be under criminal investigation for alleged violations of federal law related to his taking a post-retirement job with Armor Holdings, Inc., one of the major providers of Interceptor Body Armor to the Army .
Two sources aware of the investigation have told DefenseWatch that at least three federal agencies are investigating Norwood's transition from being the Project Manager for Soldier Equipment under PEO-SOLDIER (from 2003 until his retirement in the summer of 2006) to his post-retirement job as a Vice President of the Aerospace & Defense Group of Armor Holdings.
Editor's Note: Effective August 1, 2007 BAE became the owner of Armor Holdings, Inc., and the new owners assigned components of former Armor Holdings to already existing divisions within BAE. A representative of BAE confirmed to DefenseWatch that Col. Norwood is a current employee with the title of "Vice President for Business Development" of a BAE component. This representative stated that he was "unaware of any investigation involving Col. John Norwood."
(DefenseWatch first exposed Norwood's trip through the revolving door from a senior position in the Army's body armor program responsible for Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) to a senior position with Armor Holdings.)
A third source, a long-time member of the personal protective equipment industry, has told DefenseWatch that one of the specific allegations for which Norwood is being investigated involves possible illegal actions with regard to classified information.
DefenseWatch will continue to pursue this story and keep its readers informed as more information becomes available.
Editor's Note: It is important to emphasize: (1) that Norwood is entitled to the presumption of innocence. To this point a criminal investigation is underway. And, (2) that an investigation means only that federal law enforcement agencies are gathering evidence that will be presented to a US Attorney for determination as to whether the evidence is sufficient to move forward to the next level of legal proceedings, i.e., presentation of evidence to a federal grand jury. A DefenseWatch email to Norwood's personal/home email account has not been answered.
By the way, that interior link to Defense Watch, in which they state they first learned of the investigation, is worth quoting too. It is dated March 23, 2007.
A Sad Reality - Four West Pointers At The Heart Of The Body Armor Scandal
Those readers of DefenseWatch who have followed SFTT's efforts over the past year and a half to get honest and completely transparent comparative testing of all available both armor, including, but not necessarily restricted to both Dragon Skin and the currently issued Interceptor Body Armor system, know that from time to time there's been a tad -- okay, maybe more than a tad -- of anger in my writings on this subject. After all, it's truly an issue of life-or-death importance to America's Grunts.
This column is however, written much more in sadness and sorrow than in anger.
West Point graduates have contributed so much, for so many years, to the defense of our great nation, and in other areas as well. Two have been presidents.
But, it is on our country's many battlefields over the last two centuries that The Long Gray Line has earned the respect and gratitude that distinguishes West Point from all other institutions in our nation.
Two of the warriors that Hack respected most are West Point grads who continue to serve their country by being members of the SFTT Advisory Board: Lt. Gen. Henry E. "Hank" Emerson USA (Ret.), Class of 1947, and Lt.Gen. Harold G. "Hal" Moore, USA (Ret.), Class of 1945. Their records of distinguished and heroic performance as combat leaders speak for themselves, and need no repeating here.
Consequently, to have discovered that several West Pointers have played key roles in ensuring that inferior body armor continues to be issued to our great troops is a particular and sharp disappointment to this writer.
Before I get into the specifics of who are these "disappointments," and what just what were their roles in continuing the status quo when undeniable evidence proves a better body armor is available, I want to quote from an email received just this morning.
Like the combat leadership achievements of Hank Emerson and Hal Moore, this email speaks for itself.
I will identify the sender as a father of an sergeant of infantry, with one combat tour in Iraq behind him, and another tour coming up later this year. (Due to this father's diligence, SFTT has recently obtained some amazing information that will be shared with our readers in the next few weeks. Stand by.)
There’s much more to this story of apparent corruption within the US Army’s body armor criterion and selection board.
The letter referred to above must be read since it forms a pertinent part of this ongoing story.
As the editor notes above a presumption of innocence must be made. Are any of you familiar with how a military investigation is conducted? Early on you’re given an “Article 32” hearing, which often includes the proceedings required under Article 31, and is the military’s equivalent under UCMJ and is approximately analogous to the civilian law enforcement agencies conducting an investigation, issuing a Miranda warning, and performing the sort of detailed collection and consideration of evidence done by a grand jury in the civilian world.
Having granted COL Norwood his due right to be considered innocent, it’s noteworthy to remember that by the time the military gets to Article 32, there is an assumption that the matter will go further, and that’s all I’m going to say about the matter for now.
Most military summoned to an Article 32 hearing bring a defense attorney with them for very good reason.
The very well-respected blog Mountain Runner is one of the leaders of the pack on this topic, and posted this up several days ago. I was lazy took my time about mentioning it.
Another slap in the face of George Bu$h’s elitist contempt for the average American.
French Warship to Deliver 10,000 Books to Disadvantaged U.S. Children
This Christmas, Santa Claus is leaving his reindeer behind and hitching a ride on… a French warship! The Jeanne d’Arc, a helicopter carrier which serves as a training ship for French navy midshipmen, will dock into New York Harbor on Friday December 28 carrying over 10,000 books destined for disadvantaged American students, giving new meaning to the expression “turning swords into ploughshares.” The French books, including dictionaries and textbooks, but also novels and comic books, will be offered to the children participating in New York’s newly launched French-English dual-language programs, as well as to New Orleans schools devastated by hurricane Katrina.
A delegation of students from the Jordan L. Mott Middle School (CIS 22) in the Bronx, one of the three schools that have launched a French-English dual-language program this year (the other two are PS 125 in Harlem and PS 58 in Brooklyn), will be welcomed on-board the ship at 2pm on the 28 th. Following a performance by their school band and a tour of the two French ships (the Jeanne d’Arc will be accompanied by the antisubmarine warfare destroyer Georges Leygues), they will take delivery of the books on behalf of all the schools involved. Sixty of the eighty crates will remain in New York, while the rest will be shipped overland to New Orleans.
At 3pm, the ship’s commander, Captain Hervé Bléjean, will hold a press conference in the presence of Catherine Petillon, the French Embassy’s Attaché for Educational Affairs.
…
This unusual delivery was initiated, coordinated and financed by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, but the books themselves have been donated by two French associations, Adiflor and Biblionef. Both specialize in providing French-language books, which are either new or in excellent condition, to needy children throughout the world. The French Embassy’s contribution comes in addition to the $100,000 the French government has recently earmarked to support dual-language programs in New York City public schools.
Students participating in these dual-language programs are being partially immersed in a French-language environment, with half of their classes taking place in French, and half in English. They are expected to become completely bilingual after five years of such bilingual teaching.
The Jeanne d’Arc will remain moored in New York until January 2 at Pier 92 ( West 52th Street). It will be open for visits by New York area children learning French and their parents from December 29-31 (schools with French-language programs will receive the necessary registration information).
Jeanne d’Arc shows its respect to George Bu$h
The Bu$hCo has spent its time, efforts, and our tax money, performing what it interprets as the proper venue for “public diplomacy” – domestic propaganda, with a little bit of spillover around the word. Its record precedes it, and the stench of evil, predatory fascism has spread an oil slick of contempt for all civilized behavior. The nations of the world have quire properly returned that contempt.
Can you remember back to 2002 when the French were roundly criticized by the room-temperature IQs of the never-right for refusing to join the great glorious crusade to get even with someone who had done us no harm? Oh, what great fun we had, laughing about “freedom fries” and “freedom toast” and “Spanish salad dressing! Morons like Patrick McHenry (Fascist-VA) took repeated victory laps before the fawning news cameras for his little bit of cleverness. After we got well-stuck in the tar baby, and France, in its own orgy of bigotry over immigrants, elected its very own Fascist, all was forgiven.
France was the country that came to the aid of a desperate Colonial Army in 1778, and poured money, international assistance and recognition, soldiers and naval support into our struggle. The two countries found themselves allied once again during the war of 1812, and the friendship and mutual admiration society was off and running. It was France, not Great Britain, that honored American Freedom with a magnificent tribute, a gift that has been the lodestone of oppressed peoples around the world.
And now, in the days of George Bu$h’s No Child Left Behind, when only white children attending Christian private schools seem to be entitled to a great education, once again France has stepped forward.
As we stagger off into the year of 2008 I’ll offer my very best wishes to all of you. May your health be better than in 2007. May happiness and comfort surround you and your loved ones. May you be able to hold onto your jobs in Mr Bu$h’s “booming” economy, and if you are fortunate enough to have health insurance, I hope you keep it, and that it will cover you and your family in time of need.
Finally I hope that we will be allowed to hold elections next November, and despite the desperate efforts of the republican Party to steal yet another election, I hope sufficient numbers of outraged patriots stand on the poll lines for the 6, 7, 8, or 9 hours necessary to overcome the republican voting machines and elect a Democrat to the White House, and enough real Democrats to Congress so that we may begin the process of removing the stain George Bu$h and his fellow conspirators have put on our nation.
Thank you, one and all, for reading Main and Central through this year.
Greetings, visitors from the Group News Blog and from AlterNet. Thanks for stopping by. At the bottom of this article you will find links to 18 other articles I've written about the Army's search for a better armor design and its stubborn and loyal steadfastness to what is apparently a second best design, Point Blank's Interceptor. The entire series can be found in a topic guide in the left hand margin.
If you like what you read, please feel free to peruse some of our other topics.
The Body Armor debate is back in the news again. Stung by Congressional criticism, the Army has one again agreed to a side-by-side live fire comparison of the “controversial” Dragon Skin armor system and the currently issued Interceptor armor, worn by GIs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army has opted to delay testing of new body armor designs that can stop powerful armor piercing bullets and vests that contain flexible plating much like the controversial Dragon Skin armor.
Citing industry requests, the Army's top gear buyer told Military.com the test firing on so-called "XSAPI" and "FSAPI" armor would be held off until March 2008.
"Some body armor manufacturers told us they needed a little more time to get long-lead materials and to test new designs before they could submit them to us," said Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, head of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Program Executive Office Soldier.
Brown said the new armor designs would likely be tested at Aberdeen Test Center, Md., beginning in March and finished up by June. Testing on the new designs was previously set to begin last fall.
A cynical fly on the wall would not have been surprised to have heard “some” armor manufacturer say, “Are you insane? We can’t stand up to a side-by-side test! We need to to build a better vest for the testing.”
The Army insists the Interceptor is the best armor available, and has in fact warned GIs that if they wear Dragon Skin and are injured or killed, they families will not be allowed to collect their SGLI benefits.
The Army was pressured into launching a new solicitation for body armor designs after lawmakers held hearings on Capitol Hill to delve into the debate surrounding Dragon Skin, which is made by Fresno, Calif.-based Pinnacle Armor. An NBC News investigative report in May claimed that the flexible Dragon Skin armor was far more protective than the current Interceptor system, which uses two rigid ceramic plates to stop armor-piercing bullets.
Who are you going to believe? NBC News or the Army? Decisions, decisions.
The Army came out swinging before the NBC report aired, claiming Dragon Skin had catastrophically failed several make-or-break tests it had conducted -- the same kinds of tests used to certify all body armor systems submitted to the Army for fielding.
So, the Army prefers the Interceptor, now improved, with side panels.
Apparently the Army has no problem with visiting Senators looking for photo ops wearing Dragon Skin armor.
They also have no problem with Sith Lords who visit Iraq for whatever dark purpose.
If any reader believes Whining Joe Lieberman and Dick “dick” Cheney aren’t wearing the very best armor money can buy, please contact me. I have a controlling interest in a bridge I’m prepared to sell you for a bargain price. After gaining approval from the Mayor of New York, and the Borough Presidents of Manhattan and Brooklyn you will be able to erect toll booths. It’s an income for life!
But that didn't stop some Dragon Skin advocates from claiming the fix was in, prompting a House Armed Services Committee hearing June 6 that pitted Pinnacle chief Murray Neal against the anti-Dragon Skin Army brass.
Nevertheless, the committee's ranking member, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., called for a side-by-side test of Dragon Skin and the Interceptor run by government engineers and overseen by both congressional and Pentagon auditors. That led to the Army's June 20 request to industry for both flexible armor designs like Dragon Skin -- which incorporates a series of interlocking ceramic disks rather than a single rigid plate -- and for a so-called "XSAPI" plate which could stop armor piercing rounds the current ESAPI can't.
Attentive readers will note that the Army agreed to the tests only after Representative Hunter – a republican – demanded them. Requests from soldiers, their families and survivors, press, and Democrats were ignored. I wouldn’t want you to labor under the misapprehension that today’s Army is the Army of all the citizens.
[BG Mark Brown, head of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Program Executive Office Soldier] said part of the delay in testing comes from industry's inability to create an XSAPI plate that comes in under the weight limit of about seven pounds for a size "large" plate, about a pound more than the current ESAPI.
"One thing troops in the field have told us is they don't want any more weight with a new armor system," Brown said, adding that preliminary submissions for XSAPI have been too heavy.
Pinnacle's [DragonSkin] [Murry] Neal says he plans to submit Dragon Skin samples for the upcoming test and is glad the Army is finally taking his technology seriously.
"The extensions, as we have been told by several Army personnel, are primarily for the current manufacturers to fix the plates that have been run through preliminary testing and that are not passing with enough percentage to guarantee passing the [final] testing," Neal said in a email to Military.com, adding he's only too eager to pit his flexible -- otherwise known as "scalar" -- system up against any comers.
If their vests weren’t ready in the Summer of 2007, and they needed more time to jigger improvements, then the Interceptor certainly wasn’t the best vest available.
I just want to point out that NBC filmed their side-by-side tests of the Interceptor and Dragon Skin vests. The Army either didn’t, or won’t release the films. Suspicions that the Mk II pencil was involved in the testing just might be valid.
I think just about everyone agrees our GIs have had their helmets and heads unscrewed by the Bu$h malAdministration and their necks have been toiletized by these evil criminals. I’m confident that everyone on the oxygen-breathing side of the universe believes that. Over there among the Bu$h Jugend they of course believe that Heaven’s gift to the Heimat can do no wrong. It‘s just a matter of Will, you know.
Suffering deaths and maiming because of inadequate armor, being sent into a combat zone with unarmored vehicles, given spoiled food and filthy water, attacked by patriotic Iraqis who resented the occupation of their country, dragged back to Iraq a third, fourth, and fifth time, their families shattered, divorce rife with children that don’t even recognize their fathers because they’ve spent more time with their platoons than with their families, our GIs have been through the mill.
Once more spitting in the faces of our soldiers, Mr Bu$h has vetoed a $555 Billion defense appropriation bill recently passed by Congress at his demand. The criminals in the White House don’t like a provision in the bill that might allow Americans or corporations suing the Iraq government to freeze Iraqi financial assets during any lawsuit.
The Iraqi government asked the USG to do something about this. Mr Bu$h did. He vetoed the bill.
A cynical man might think that if somehow Baghdad started looking like Saigon, 1975 in the near future the government of Iraq – you know – that “sovereign” entity that controls most of the Green Zone (except for the areas occupied by Backwater and the other Teflon mercenaries) – might have to suddenly shift the finds of that “sovereign” country to some other banking system in some other country with banking regulations a bit more opaque than in the US, if you get my drift and I think you do.
The veto threat startled Democratic congressional leaders, who believe Bush is bowing to pressure from the Iraqi government over a provision meant to help victims of state-sponsored terrorism. The veto is unexpected because there was no veto threat and the legislation passed both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly.
…
"We understand that the president is bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks if this bill is signed," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in a joint statement. “The administration should have raised its objections earlier, when this issue could have been addressed without a veto."
A White House spokesman said the veto would officially be delivered by Dec. 31. The dispute could be settled in late January when Congress returns if Democratic leaders agree to tweak the language before sending the bill back to the White House.
I wonder whether there really are any lawsuits that could endanger the bank accounts of the “sovereign” Iraq. A cynical man might wonder whether the US banking system could easily weather a sudden withdrawal of the Iraq money, following right on the heels of the subprime mortgage flim-flam meltdown. Is everyone up to speed with the idea that the banks are far more important that the troops?
At issue is a provision deep in the defense authorization bill, which would essentially allow victims of state sponsored terrorism to sue those countries for damages. The Iraqi government believes the provision, if applied to the regime of Saddam Hussein, could target up to $25 billion in Iraqi assets held in U.S. banks. Iraq has threatened to pull all of its money out of the U.S. banking system if the provision remains in the bill.
I know you will be surprised to learn that all Iraq funds were in fact frozen by President Clinton on February 16, 1993, by Executive Order 12722, and reinforced by Mr Bu$h in Executive Order 13303, as detailed in this Salon piece by Andrew Cockburn.
I haven’t been able to find any legal authority unlocking these funds, and would appreciate it if someone can point me to any such ruling or law.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the disputed provision "would permit plaintiffs’ lawyers immediately to freeze Iraqi funds and would expose Iraq to massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime. The new democratic government of Iraq, during this crucial period of reconstruction, cannot afford to have its funds entangled in such lawsuits in the United States."
So, if you were brutalized by Saddam Hussein’s government, and you thought you could get some justice by good old American revenge by cash, you’re just out of luck.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) was angered that the White House decided on a veto long after the bill passed both chambers of Congress.
"It is unfortunate that the administration failed to identify the concerns upon which this veto is based until after the bill had passed both houses on Congress and was sent to the President for signature," Levin said. "I am deeply disappointed that our troops and veterans may have to pay for their mistake and for the confusion and uncertainty caused by their snafu.”
The item in the defense authorization bill causing all the hubbub was inserted by Senator Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ) with 30 Senatorial co-sponsors.
Lautenberg contends that his provision is aimed at holding countries like Iran responsible for state sponsored terrorism, including the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beruit in 1983. The measure would allow plaintiffs to target hidden commercial assets owned by countries that sponsor terrorism, and the language is not aimed at Iraq specifically. The Lautenberg amendment has 30 cosponsors, including a handful of conservative Republicans like Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).
“My language allows American victims of terror to hold perpetrators accountable — plain and simple,” Lautenberg said. “After months of negotiations over this bill, it is hard to understand why President Bush would suddenly veto this bipartisan proposal at the last minute. The President should be listening to the pleas of Americans victims of terror and their families and should help give them the justice they deserve.”
The problem was known about more than a week ago, and was mentioned in this ABC News piece dated December 19th.
Mr Bu$h could have avoided all this by mentioning the matter before the bill was passed. We all know he’s quick enough to shriek in front of cameras and threaten a veto of other bills he considers too kind to the “little people.”
Yet, surprisingly, he waited until the very last second, after the bill was passed overwhelmingly, and transmitted to our desk in the Oval Office he occupies, to complain.
Government by tantrum is no way to run a railroad, Mr Bu$h.
A tip of the Kevlar helmet to reader Neil O’C for shoving this story over the transom.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to give Congress details of the government's investigation into interrogations of terror suspects that were videotaped and destroyed by the CIA. He said doing so could raise questions about whether the inquiry is vulnerable to political pressure.
In letters Friday to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees that oversee the Justice Department, Mukasey also said there is no need right now to appoint a special prosecutor to lead the investigation. The preliminary inquiry currently is being handled by the Justice Department and the CIA's inspector general.
"I am aware of no facts at present to suggest that department attorneys cannot conduct this inquiry in an impartial manner," Mukasey wrote to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat and Republican, respectively, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If I become aware of information that leads me to a different conclusion, I will act on it."
That’s right. The nation’s Top Law Enforcement officer™ who used to teach law at a prestigious law school, and who has spent 18 years on the bench deciding legal matters, has no idea what torture is, even though what constitutes torture is enumerated in the laws of the United States.
I’m not a lawyer. I don’t pretend to be one, but I learned in my first year of college, while studying Constitutional Law, that International Treaties entered into by the United States are laws binding upon the nation, and have the effect of law inside the country. It’s true, you could look it up. It’s in the second paragraph of Article VI.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved an intelligence bill Thursday that would prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods.
The 222-199 vote sent the measure to the Senate, which still must act before it can go to President Bush. The White House has threatened a veto.
An awake man would find it fascinating that members of the largest criminal enterprise in the United States today endorse the actions of Heinrich Himmler and Tomoyuki Yamashita.
Down here in the 18th Century we’re having a big legal discussion about whether it’s right to chain up juveniles when they’re brought into court.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks…considers the legality of Palm Beach County's policy of shackling all children brought into juvenile courts on criminal charges.
In a two-hour hearing Friday, Middlebrooks struggled to understand exactly when and why shackles are used and what Public Defender Carey Haughwout would suggest to assure others in the courtroom remain safe if the shackles are removed.
Haughwout, who filed the federal lawsuit in August after her pleas to county juvenile judges and an appeals court failed, said she was prepared to have lawyers testify about how the policy prevents children from getting a fair trial and the psychological trauma it heaps on youngsters, many of whom are poor and have suffered from lifetimes of abuse.
However, rather than discussing – you know – the actual fucking issues, Judge Middlebrooks appears to have been distracted by the issue of whether the process has been properly served.
Instead, the hearing centered mostly on thorny legal issues of whether the lawsuit was filed properly and whether Haughwout has other options - short of federal intervention - that could resolve the issue.
"What federal right are you seeking to impose to take the unusual step of a federal court telling a state court how to act?" Middlebrooks asked.
Haughwout said her office has tried to persuade juvenile court judges that most youngsters aren't a threat, that they don't need to be restrained with leg irons and handcuffs that are secured to a chain around their waists.
Sure. Why would we worry about prejudicing the jury if we can brutalize the kiddies? Those of us who actually have memories that span more than four days remember the last time a Federal court was asked to decide a local matter.
You’ll be surprised to learn that children charged as adults (yes, we do that down here) are treated more humanely.
[T]eens charged with such serious crimes that they are tried as adults are treated more gently. Adults are restrained only with leg irons. That means they can hold documents, write notes to their attorneys, wipe tears from their eyes or blow their noses.
Tears? They actually allow these criminals to cry? Disgraceful!
Charles Fahlbusch, an assistant attorney general who represents the Department of Juvenile Justice, said the configuration of courtrooms makes it easier to control adults. Adult offenders waiting for hearings are seated in jury boxes with sheriff's deputies at each end. There are no jury boxes in juvenile courtrooms, he said.
That’s what we need in juvenile courts! Holding pens.
But, according to America’s foremost expert on the handling of children, chaining them up is the proper solution. On Thursday night, Bill O’Reilly, the 21st century’s answer to Cotton Mather, proclaimed that it is appropriate to chain up children in the basement for 18 months if they dare to send photos of themselves to their friends. Crooks and Liars has the video clip and the money quote.
Bill, steer out of this skid quickly - very quickly! Right now you’re getting worked up over the thought of chaining naked 13 year old girls in the cellar for maybe 18 months. Stop while you still can!”
The image must be more exciting than a wet hard loofah to this pervert.
Americans woke Saturday to the news that the collaborators currently masquerading as leaders of the Democratic Party were determined to once again give George Bu$h every last penny in the cupboard in a desperate attempt to – do something or other. No one seems to be quite sure what.
The little bunnies were so frightened of a coward and bully, supported by 24% of the walking zombified of the nation, that they were going to give him all the ca$h he was demanding by holding the US troops in the Middle East as hostages. While they once stood up on their hind legs and pounded their little hollow chests before servilely caving in, this time they weren’t even going to do the kabuki for the cameras.
Senior lawmakers and Congressional aides said the broad outlines of the proposal called for the House to consider $30 billion for military operations in Afghanistan, as well as money for military bases and support programs for military families to quiet fears of Pentagon layoffs because of a lack of money.
…
After the measure returns to the House for a final vote, Democrats opposed to the war are likely to vote against it but may not be able to stop it. The decision to free some money for the war without a deadline or goal for withdrawal would represent a major concession by Democrats. They had earlier said they would not send Mr. Bush any more war money this year unless he accepted a change in Iraq policy.
But Democratic leaders now say they have concluded that a logjam of 11 appropriations bills cannot be broken without acceding to at least some of the president’s demand for more war money.[emph added]
I was cruel about this story on Saturday because the Democratic Party has shamed me and my country. Cruel, but accurate. Years of being double-teamed by the criminal conspiracy known as the republican Party and their running dog lackeys of the corporate media has made them so frightened of a harsh word or darkening brow that the Dems quiver in reaction when a coffee cup is dropped. They no longer plan political strategy in order to defend the nation. Now they sit down in a locked room and work out just how they are going to gull the country once again while they enable the criminals to steal more of our heritage and treasure.
This morning’s WaPo is carrying an article by Jonathan Weissman reporting that David Obey (D-Wisc) thinks he’s had enough.
A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) accused Republicans of bargaining in bad faith.
Instead, Obey said he will push a huge spending bill that would hew to the president's spending limit by stripping it of all lawmakers' pet projects, as well as most of the Bush administration's top priorities. It would also contain no money for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr Bu$h, who never saw a middle class or poor American that he wasn’t willing to crawl across broken glass to kick, had demanded that there be no additional or new domestic spending beyond that which he felt was appropriate for people dying the slow death of an unresponsive economy that has been tailored to increase the wealth of large corporations and a very small and elite group of multi-millionaires.
House Democratic leaders were scheduled to complete work last night on a $520 billion spending bill that included $11 billion in funding for domestic programs above the president's request, half of what Democrats had initially approved. The bill would have also contained $30 billion for the war in Afghanistan, upon which the Senate would have added billions more for Iraq before final congressional approval.
But a stern veto threat this weekend from White House budget director Jim Nussle put the deal in jeopardy, and Obey said he is prepared for a long standoff with the White House.
Mr Obey thinks he may have discovered a simple solution that he feels might goad Congress to stand up on its hind legs for once. Just take the pet projects (“earmarks”) out of the bill. As our under-worked and over-paid Congresscritters head home for their latest time off from work they want to show the folks in their districts that they’re squeezing the golden goose to best effect. There’s nothing more embarrassing than going home for Christmas without a nice little giftwrapped present for that big contractor in your home district.
Obey's proposal would ax about 9,500 home-district and home-state projects worth a total of $9.5 billion, according to Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Republicans inserted about 40 percent of those projects.
White House spokesweasel Tony Fratto doesn’t care what Congressman Obey proposes. Following the official Bu$h malAdministration policy of showing maximum contempt for Congress at all times, he sniffed dismissively, "Different day, different Democrat, different direction. Our position hasn't changed[.]"
Many rank-and-file republicans are a bit frightened of this situation since earmarks were shaved off a 2006 appropriations bill and a 2007 spending bill passed earlier this year. The thought of bringing home empty bags two years in a row has frightened a number of them and they have begged Minority Leader John Boehner to lighten up a bit and work with the Democrats.
Knowledgeable observers noted Mr Boehner is more frightened of Mr Bu$h than of his own rank-and-file.
When reading information about Iraq a prudent man would remember that since Iraq is quite dangerous our intrepid journalists tend to get their information from the MNF-I PR flack of the day or from Bu$h malAdministration sources currently occupying our White House.
Both of these sources have been proven in the past to be inaccurate, as a charitable man might say.
Further on the Anbar question” Gorilla’s Guides has a good piece on the conditions in Anbar today.
RAMADI, Iraq, Nov 29 (IPS) - A semblance of calm belies an undercurrent of violence, detentions and fear across Iraq’s volatile al-Anbar province.
The province — which occupies one-third of Iraq’s geographic area — has been a bane to authorities since the beginning of the occupation.
"The Americans talked about our province as the deadliest enemy, and suddenly they are marketing us as their best friends," Sa’doon Khalifa, an independent politician in the capital city of al-Anbar Province, Ramadi — 110 km west of Baghdad — told IPS. "They were lying to their people and to the world in both cases as we were never terrorists nor their friends now," he stressed.
I tend to believe the writers at Guides, not because they’re on the same side of the ideological coin as I am, but because when I first started reading their work, I made a point of cross-checking what they wrote against other sources and verifying their statements.
Khalifa explained that resistance fighters in al-Anbar did fight occupation forces, but now they are standing down from launching new attacks against U.S. forces.
This is due in large part to U.S. military payments to collaborating tribal sheikhs — already totalling over 17 million dollars. The money funds tribal fighters who are paid 300 dollars per month to patrol their areas, particularly against foreign fighters.
The military refers to these men as "Concerned Local Citizens," "Awakening Force," or simply "volunteers," even though it is well known that most of them used to carry out attacks against the occupation forces.
"Those Americans thought they would decrease the resistance attacks by separating the people of Iraq into sects and tribes," a 32-year-old man from Ramadi — speaking on terms of anonymity — told IPS, "They know they are going deeper into the moving sand, but the collaborators are fooling the Americans right now, and will in the end use this strategy against them."
"It is true that hundreds of fighters were killed or detained by the so-called Awakening Forces, but there are thousands who will never quit fighting until this occupation is ended," Ali Khamees, a former major of the Iraqi army told IPS in Ramadi.
Khamees believes that the de-escalation is a "new technique by the resistance to reduce the suffering of people in al-Anbar and move somewhere else to fight."
Attacks against U.S. forces have increased in other Iraqi provinces — like Diyala, Saladin and Mosul.
The U.S. army reported dozens of soldiers killed throughout November while local reports insisted that the U.S. casualties are much higher than declared.
A fact that seems to escape our never-right brethren and sistren on the Dark Side is that they would fight just as damned hard if the US was occupied by some other country. (Well, I hope they would; I know I would. Possibly the right wing in this country is actually just a pack of cowardly collaborators. I don’t know. I hope we never have to depend on them.)
Lowballing Iraqi casualties would be very easy for MNF-I which is where most of our news comes from, ultimately. It would be more difficult for them to lie about deaths because local newspapers carry obituaries and I’m confident someone somewhere is tabulating those totals. This method would be necessary since Mr Bu$h has denied Americans the privilege of honoring and welcoming their valiant dead home at Andrews Air Base.
Our dead soldiers are sneaked in under cover of night, like thieves attempting to avoid police.
Yet one more indignity these criminals have heaped upon my Army.
That part of the resistance in Iraq that has been erroneously designated as “Al Qaeda” used harsh methods when attacking the occupying forces. The Mahdi Army was also cruel in its treatment of Sunnis during its ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods and districts of Iraq. Torture and beheadings were common. But in Anbar,
Iraqis across the province are complaining about harsh tactics being meted out by the new "Awakening Forces" supported by the U.S.
"We will behead anyone who carries a gun in this province," Wussam Hardan, a senior leader of the Awakening Forces in Ramadi told sources very close to IPS in the city. "No court, no lawyers, no nothing. We have our own ways to get those criminals to confess," Hardan said.
Ooops.
The people of the province fear the recent developments, despite the relative improvement in the security situation.
"It is quieter because the Americans stopped many of their activities in al- Anbar," Shakir Mahmood, a human rights activist in Ramadi told IPS — on condition that his false name be used. "There were so many arrests by U.S. forces, police and the Awakening during the past month and we cannot even talk about it because we feel threatened by all three of them," he said.
"So many of the detainees are well known to be innocent people taken into custody according to false information by others who have a personal feud with them or their families," Mahmood added, "It is the same old story being repeated and God knows what is going to happen next."
The bottom line is that as long as US deaths are down, the Bu$hies are happy. Lower casualties equates to a quieter domestic political climate, and that is their only yardstick.
Jordan Fox joined the Army, wanting to help his country. The patriot, from Mt Lebanon, PA, joined the Infantry (which really is the ONLY combat arm that matters) passed through training, and then elected to go through sniper school, passed and went to the one place in the world where the Army needs snipers, and that isn’t in Fort Drum.
While in the sandbox, he did his duty, saw combat, got promoted to PFC, and got wounded seriously enough that he was discharged.
(CBS) Jordan Fox received a $10,000 signing bonus when he joined the Army. The Mt. Lebanon man served his country in Iraq, where as a sniper he survived machine gun battles and a roadside bomb that knocked him unconscious and blinded him in his right eye.
The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country and unfortunately I was hurt in the process and now they're telling me that they want their money back," Fox told CBS station KDKA-TV.
It’s a simple story. Man steps up to the plate. Gets wounded and is disabled because the Army doesn’t need any one-eyed snipers this year. Gets discharged and then is asked for a rebate on the unused portion of his enlistment bonus.
ARRRGHHH!
Surprisingly, the man actually pitches a bitch, believing that there is no reason for the Army to act like a bunch of cut-throat corporatists, feeling that just because George Bu$h doesn’t give a Chinese fart what happens to American soldiers, there is no reason for the Army to act that way.
Does America really need Republican pimps in the Green bag?
A Fake News station invited him on their show, planning to sandbag him with the “announcement” arranged one hour before airtime that HQ, Department of the Army has magnanimously decided that in this case, Jordan Fox doesn’t have to give back the $2,800 that they tried to bill him for. You shouldn’t be surprised by this because Roger Ailes and Rupert “Green Card” Murdoch have built an empire for themselves fellating the Republican Party. As I understand, Mr Fox stated he was happy about the news, but immediately riposted with a comment wondering how this decision will affect all the other GIS who have been dunned.
Interestingly enough, Fox may have lost an eye in Iraq, but not his mind and as CBS (a real news network) explains,
This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses - up to $30,000 in some cases. Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
Military regulations do allow for discharged soldiers to be forced to pay back part of their enlistment bonuses if they do not serve their entire commitment, if they were found to have "pre-existing" conditions, such as psychological disorders.
Keith Olberman had a few words to say about the whole matter.
Was the Army taking the shot that maybe Jordan Fox would just meekly hand back the rest of his enlistment bonus because “We’re bigger than you are, kid. You can’t win.” ?
Naw! I don’t believe that, do you? Uniformed Republican pimps trying to outwit a soldier?
In late October, Fox got a letter from the Army seeking repayment of part of his enlistment bonus because he had only completed about a year of his three-year service.
Another letter arrived a week later warning he could be charged interest if he didn’t make a payment within 30 days.
“I was just completely shocked,” Fox said. “I couldn’t believe I’d gotten a bill in the mail from the Army.” [emph added]
“Pay it back, fast, or you’ll be charged interest, too” Nothing like a little piling on, eh, gents?
I’m reminded of stories about Mr Cheney’s Halliburton being caught overcharging the Army for meals and the Army magnanimously deciding not to sue to recoup the funds that were defrauded, arguing that it was to much work to chase after the millions of dollars stolen from the taxpayers.
Obviously, PFC Fox’s mistake was not being born a Cheney. But then, if he had been born a Cheney he wouldn’t have had to enlist, go to Iraq, and surely wouldn’t have been wounded. Members of the Cheney family always seem to have other priorities when there’s killing going on.
Faced with some nationwide adverse publicity about the matter, HQ, DA decided this is one of those times when you pull in your horns.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2007 – If you are wounded in combat and discharged as a result, you will not have to pay back your enlistment bonus, Defense Department officials said here today.
“Bonuses are not recouped simply for one's inability to complete an enlistment or re-enlistment agreement through no fault of the military member,” a policy statement said.
Pentagon officials re-stated their policy after a wounded soldier in Pennsylvania received a bill from the Army. Jordan Fox was a private first class in Baqouba, Iraq, when he was wounded in the explosion of an improvised explosive device. Fox suffered vision troubles in his right eye and suffered a back injury when the bomb went off in May.
Fox was medically discharged and went home to his town near Pittsburgh. The Army sent him a letter asking him to repay $2,800 of his $7,500 enlistment bonus. He received a second letter telling him the Army would charge interest if he didn't make a payment within 30 days.
“Department policy prohibits recoupment when it would be contrary to equity and good conscience, or would be contrary to the nation's interests,” according to the Defense Department policy statement. “Those circumstances include, for example, an inability to complete a service agreement because of illness, injury, disability, or other impairment that did not clearly result from misconduct.”
Department policy on recoupment also establishes that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the secretaries of the military departments “shall remit or cancel any and all theater debt incurred by military members who were medically evacuated from a combat zone due to injury or illness, except in the event of clear misconduct.”
Army officials said Fox will not be required to pay back any enlistment money he received. “By all accounts, his case seems to be an isolated one,” Army officials said. Anyone who does have an issue can call the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline at 1-800-984-8523.
Am I out of place asking what will happen to the Gus who got these dunning letters a year or two ago and actually scrimped, saved, and borrowed from family in order to repay the enlistment bonuses that should never have been clawed back?
Will the Army pay those citizens and veterans interest when they reimburse them?
We hear a lot about this topic lately. Most Americans who are awake understand what it involves, and most of those have an opinion about it. Generalities are always suspect, but attitudes about waterboarding, and torture in general, seem to have coalesced around the political divide in our country. Progressives and liberals seem to judge the subject from a philosophical and ethical point of view, and are horrified that the US has resorted to such methods. Conservatives seem to believe that anything less than torture makes us look weak, and dangerously helpless.
Is it an oversimplification to say that conservatives are bedwetting cowards, terrified of the big bad Islamist bogeyman slavering outside our borders and just waiting for a chance to sneak over our borders and murder us all in our sleep, then forcing our women to dress in burkas? Well, maybe, but aren’t there a lot of similarities between the Islamic fundamentalists outside our orders and the faux-christian fundamentalists inside the country?
Both groups seem to have tremendous hang-ups about women as equal partners. They both appear to have some pretty strange problems about how women address the issues of their “personhood”. (Is there such a word? I mean the fact that women are sentient beings with minds of their own, more than just breeding machines.) Both seem eager to force religion across the broad base of the culture, realigning the process of civil and criminal law, as well as the entire process of government, to conform to their interpretations of laws supposedly handed down from a burning bush.
Mark Paul has written an engaging piece about torture in Friday’s paper.
Two centuries after the Bill of Rights, a half century after the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners, torture is no longer an evil to be denounced; it’s an open question. “McCain Finds Sympathy on Torture Issue,” a Nov. 16 New York Times headline proclaimed. It doesn’t get any more official than that. Forget earmarks and Social Security; in Election 2008 it looks as if we get to vote on stress positions, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and maybe even the rack. And the blogosphere, as usual, has got a head start on arguing what kind of place America wants to be.
The piece is well worth reading in its entirety because it highlights a specific problem that straddles the chasm the right has created in our country. Are all men equal? Are they “men”? Are some “men” more human than others? What precise justification does the right offer for the use of torture as a weapon of intelligence gathering, other than Jack Bauer’s certainty of a ticking nuclear bomb? I use the word “weapon” intentionally because doing physical, emotional, or psychological harm to another is an act of violence. I’m pretty surer waterboarding is at least one of those. Maybe we could ask John McCain because he’s actually an expert on that stuff, although his official opinion on torture seems to waver as his political fortunes change.
Mr Paul points out a few illustrative comments from public personalities both supporting and condemning the use of torture. The right seems to be obsessed with that bogeyman fear of the nuclear bomb. The Left, on the other hand, seems to focus on silly things facts, and law.
With McCain a “courageous” exception among GOP candidates, “The use of torture is fast becoming a core principle of today's Republican party,” conservative Andrew Sullivan asserts at TheAtlantic.com. “My sense is that many in the base are uncomfortable with the defensiveness of the Bush people, and their use of euphemism in this respect.”
A cynical observer would probably grasp the fact that the Bu$hies have a lot to be defensive about.
They’ve focused their laser-like mentalities on the “war on terrorism” which seems to me to be rather bogus, like the “war on poverty.” We lost that war; the poor are in greater numbers today than they were 40 years ago. We also fought a “war on drugs” and if anyone thinks we’ve won that war they just have to go down to any city neighborhood and start asking about prices.
Likewise, we see that the Right, which has historically been wrong on every other topic of public discussion, is enthusiastically backing this evil policy which has been condemned by every modern democracy.
What does this say about their ability (or inability) to authoritatively lead in this “war on terror” that they have so urgently espoused? Mark Paul describes their position on torture as “agnostic,” which I don’t quite understand, since the US has spent the last 60 years publicly condemning nations that use torture as a means of investigation and punishment.
As is usual for the Right, there is a stunning lack of protest about the official barbarity of the Bu$h malAdministration. One of the few dissenting voices on the dark side of the political chasm comes from Tony Perkins’ Family research Council, of all places.
Writing in The Evangelical Outpost, Joe Carter, director of web communications for the FRC, and a former marine, wrote:
“As Christians we must never condone the use of methods that threaten to undermine the inherent dignity of the person created in the image of God. Murdock may believe there is nothing “repugnant” about waterboarding. But there is something clearly repugnant about our unwillingness to distance ourselves from the fear-driven utilitarians willing to embrace the use of torture.”
The McClatchy article specifically suggests readers go to that Evangelical Outpost article and read some of the comments the good Christians have written. Apparently it’s moral to kill and torture people if they don’t believe in the Jewish carpenter.
I noted that Judge Mukasey was approved by the Senate, advising and consenting in their full panoply of majestic anti-Americanism. Judge Mukasey of course, is the George Bu$h-approved Attorney General candidate who has spent many years not only practicing the law, but also wearing the black gown and telling other people what the law means, and, furthermore, teaching law to young minds. Yet, strangely enough, this man apparently doesn’t know how to look up what the laws of the United States have to say about torture.
I am curious, however, how it is that when the Senate is asked by us, their constituents, the voters, the taxpayers, their employers, to do something like , ohhh….. end the fucking bloodshed, or stop pissing our money down a hole in the sand, or use a constitutional method of firing a couple of criminals, they can’t do it because “we don’t have 60 votes.”
Yesterday was a good day for George Bu$h. He got to whine and preen and show his eight year old child-mind when petulantly scolding Congress for trying to do its job:
WASHINGTON - President Bush compared Congress' Democratic leaders Thursday to people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying "the world paid a terrible price" then and risks similar consequences for inaction today.
Bush accused Congress of stalling important pieces of the fight to prevent new terrorist attacks by: dragging out and possibly jeopardizing confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, a key part of his national security team; failing to act on a bill governing eavesdropping on terrorist suspects; and moving too slowly to approve spending measures for the Iraq war, Pentagon and veterans programs.
Pitching a hissy fit, the Leader of the Free Work™ objected mightily to Democratic Party attempts to somehow salvage the tattered reputation of the United States and its Department of Justice as it performed its Constitutional mandate while advising and consenting on the nomination of Michael Mukasey, a lawyer of 40+ years experience and judge almost 20 years, who says he has no idea whether or not torture is really torture. The Geneva Conventions, to which the US is a signatory, says waterboarding is torture, but Rudy Giuliani says it all depends on who’s doing it, and that’s good enough for the great solon, Mike Mukasey.
This nation is in deep trouble when it allows sociopaths to create its legal definitions.
Speaking of sociopaths, Mr Bu$h also said,
"Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war," Bush said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "This is no time for Congress to weaken the Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader. ... It's no time for Congress to weaken our ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight al-Qaida terrorists and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq."
A sensible man would agree that Justice needs a strong and effective leader, more especially so since it has spent the last few years plumbing the depths of ignorance and partisan politics establishing “dependable” US Attorneys in districts that were expected to produce strong Democratic challenges to the Republican Party in the 2008 elections. Sadly Judge Mukasey may not be the leader we need.
During his recent interviews and recantation so of what he testified to in Congress, Mr Gonzalez showed that he had no idea what was going on in the Department he was legally responsible for.
So, perhaps the prospect of a leader-less Justice isn’t really so bad, is it? After all, what difference is there between an empty chair and an empty suit?
Mr Bu$h’s embarrassing public temper tantrums have begun to be very familiar. He doesn’t want a Congress, really, because it just impedes his style as dictator, and these annoying attempts at Congressional independence and oversight just harsh his mind. The fact that he’s trying to browbeat Congress to just give him the money he’s demanding to find his ego-war for a few more months is heartening because it shows he isn’t quite finished with them.
Bush said any denial of war is dangerous.
"History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake," Bush said. "Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?"
I wonder whether Congress has figured out that Mr Bu$h is at war with them? A sensible man would take note of his comments about evil men. Soon we will see him try to side-step Congress, and rule by administrative and execution order.
Mr Bu$h’s ego-streak continued yesterday when the Senate voted 64-30 to return a slightly-modified SCHIP bill to him. The House has already voted on it, 265-142 and there are some slight differences which will be ironed out. It’s not what he demanded, so we know that George Bu$h will once again deny needy children the health care that might save a life or four. A cynical observer would consider the balance between George Bu$h’s ego and the lives and health of poor and lower middle class children and realize there’s no hope for them as long as he’s in our Oval Office, destroying America.
Today’s WaPo has a followup on the ongoing Blackwater flustercuck that the State Department has created. Karen DeYoung gets into her waders and tries to deal with a basket of snakes.
The State Department said yesterday that it had provided "limited protections" to Blackwater Worldwide security guards under investigation in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians but insisted that its actions would not preclude successful prosecution of the contractors.
Signed statements the guards provided to State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 16 shooting deaths included what law enforcement officials said was a standard disclaimer used in "official administrative inquiries" involving government employees. It said that the statements were being offered with the understanding that nothing in them could be used "in a criminal proceeding."
These “protections” were first described as “immunity.” Knowledeable observers of the Bu$h malAdministration know by now that when they’re caught in one of their almost countless screw ups, the first reaction is either denial, or the first desperate lie that comes to mind. That explains the immunity story. That fable got flushed down the crapper fairly quickly and then State fell back on the story that it was a “partial immunity,” and thus the contractors are, unfortunately not indictable. After all, State did have to get to the truth, didn’t it?
As has now been acknowledged by a State Department spokesman, the Department has absolutely no authority to immunize anyone from any legal proceedings.
The decision to offer Blackwater guards protection from any use of their statements was made by State Department personnel in Baghdad without approval from Washington, sources said. Department lawyers subsequently determined that decades-old federal court rulings required such guarantees against self-incrimination for all government employees during internal investigations; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that the protections also applied to federal contractors.
As some might guess, if there is to be criminal action on the Nissoor Square slaughter, among other atrocities, it won’t be happening in Iraq, and if the political decision is made to try the BW guards in order to stop the Democratic push, these “partial immunities” will crop up again in the courtroom and despite their patent non-applicability, they will be sagely argued for days.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that State has no power to immunize anyone from federal criminal prosecution. "We would not have asked the FBI and the Department of Justice to get involved in a case that we did not think that they could potentially prosecute."
I believe the company owned by Erik Prince, a deep pockets Republican campaign donor and rock hard Fundamentalist will be prosecuted.
Michael Mukasey, who has been nominated by Mr Bu$h to replace the disgraced Albeerto Gonzalez, has been having a tough time getting approval from the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It seems he doesn’t know whether waterboarding is technically torture, although he does opine that he considers it “repugnant.” Dan Egeen discusses this in today’s WaPo.
Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is "repugnant to me," but he said he does not know whether the interrogation tactic violates U.S. laws against torture.
Mukasey's uncertainty about the method's legality has raised new questions about the success of his nomination. It seemed a sure thing just two weeks ago, as Democrats joined Republicans in predicting his easy confirmation to succeed the embattled Alberto R. Gonzales.
Mukasey raised alarms among Democrats and human rights groups during testimony on Oct. 18. He declined to say whether waterboarding is torture, prompting key Democrats to press the point and say their vote will hinge on his answer to that question.
This is an especially distressing revelation because Mr Mukasey has not only been a lawyer, but he’s also been a judge, and a law professor. He spent 18 years on the bench of the Southern District of New York, which is known as the “Super District” I believe, because it gets some very high priority cases. During Judge Mukasey’s term he heard the cases against Omar Abdel Rahman and El Sayyid Nosair in terrorism cases that grew out of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, (perhaps better known as the only successful prosecution of terrorists in the United States,) and he also heard the case against Jose Padilla, who now and then knows what day of the week it is, and got haled up on charges of plotting to make a dirty bomb despite any evidence that he had actually done that.
During prior interviews with the Senators, Judge Mukasey tiptoed around the question of torture and refused to commit himself to upholding the law. This earned him some frowns from several Democratic Senators (and possibly a few Republicans, albeit certainly behind clasped hands.)
Judge Mukasey served as Chief Judge of the Southern District from 2001 to 2006 when he unexpectedly retired to return to private practice. He’s also been teaching law during each Spring semester at Columbia Law School since the Spring of 1993. It’s not exactly a rule of thumb, but generally speaking you have to know something about the law to teach at an Ivy League Law School.
Did I mention Judge Mukasey was also awarded the Learned Hand Medal of the Federal Bar Society, among other honors?
I’m not a lawyer. I don’t pretend to be one, but I learned in my first year of college, while studying Constitutional Law, that International Treaties entered into by the United States are laws binding upon the nation, and have the effect of law inside the country. It’s true, you could look it up. It’s in the second paragraph of Article VI.
All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.[emph added]
I invite you to notice that this Article imposes upon Senators, Representatives, members of the state legislatures, and officers of the Executive and Judicial branches the obligation to obey all the laws, including such treaties as the US might be party to.
One of those treaties is the Geneva Convention and waterboarding is prohibited. In fact, we jailed and executed some prisoners of war after WWII precisely because they tortured people.
I am astounded Judge Mukasey has forgotten this significant inconvenience about waterboarding.
Mukasey said that techniques described as waterboarding by lawmakers "seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me, and would probably seem the same to many Americans." But, he continued, "hypotheticals are different from real life, and in any legal opinion the actual facts and circumstances are critical."
This is what some law professors call ”treading water,” although maybe they’re more polite in the Ivy League, where many lawyers are bred to be Senior Partners. But the facts are the same. The law might sound exotic at times in a classroom, but when you’re in a courtroom, trying a case, you’re dealing with real people and real events, and real harm, or so it said in one of my course books. Maybe it’s different in the Ivy League, or when you’re a Republican. (Just show me the Ivy League and Republican exemptions in the law book, please.)
Mukasey also said he is reluctant to offer opinions on interrogation techniques because he does not want to place U.S. officials "in personal legal jeopardy" and is concerned that such remarks might "provide our enemies with a window into the limits or contours of any interrogation program." His arguments are similar to those advanced by the Bush administration in its refusal to discuss waterboarding or other interrogation techniques.
Good Heavens! Learned Hand must be rotating in his grave like a Thanksgiving turkey! Of course they would be in personal legal jeopardy! That is called "breaking the law" and it is the function of the Attorney General of the United States to prosecute criminals. He is tasked with the obligation of upholding the laws of the nation. If they have been breaking the law, which is what waterboarding is, then the AGUS is required to prosecute them, unless there is a Republican exemption in the Geneva Convention.
The Army is faced with an ongoing war in Iraq and deployments have become repetitive and more and more stressful. Some argue that it isn’t really a war, but actually an occupation complicated by an ongoing civil war between two or three or four competing segments of the Iraqi population, depending on who’s doing the counting. The fact remains that it is combat, primarily of the urban type, which is most difficult and most stressful because each open door or window, each corner, each pile of trash offers the danger of ambush.
At one time the Army pinned great hopes on its Stryker armored vehicles, which it termed an “interim” vehicle.
The M1126 Stryker was always considered an “interim” vehicle, bridging the gap between the heavy-armor divisions containing M1A1 Abrams tanks and M2/M3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles designed to fight WWIII against the Soviet Union, and the envisioned units planned for the Army’s Future Combat System.
The Stryker was designed with a ceramic armor capable of defeating infantry munitions, such as 7.62 mm and 14.5 mm armor-piercing rounds. It was not designed to withstand anti-armor projectiles, such as RPGs. As it was being designed, there were serious weight considerations and changes had to be made.
The Stryker was a key component of Mr Rumsfeld’s transformational revolution in military affairs, the Army pinned great hopes on it. Because it wasn’t defensible against RPGs, some quick solutions were created, first in the field and then in follow up add-on packages supplied to the field.
The Army has lost quite a few Strykers in Iraq and avoiding loss of these vehicles and their crews in combat has become a skill to be handed on as each new unit deploys. The Army’s only Reserve unit equipped with Strykers, is in Pennsylvania’s National Guard, and it’s been training with the machines for two years, preparing for deployment in 2009.
[LTC Pat[ Mangin and Lt. Col. Mitch Rambin served 16 months in Iraq with an active Army brigade from Alaska. They are spending the weekend teaching about 160 leaders of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard the nuances of serving in Iraq with the Strykers. Mangin called their lessons “the Ph.D. of counterinsurgency.”
The Strykers are the Army’s most sophisticated vehicle, capable of speeds up to 75 mph and outfitted with computers and GPS units. About 4,000 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard Stryker brigade, the only National Guard unit with Strykers, have been told they will deploy to Iraq early in 2009.
Prior to Iraq, replacements were fed into units on a piecemeal basis. They joined an experienced unit and it was up to unit members to train the FNGs on what to expect, how to avoid it, and how to get out of trouble when you found something unexpected. With the present system of wholesale replacement by unit, institutional memory is lost and too many companies and battalions have had to learn by experience, which is often tragically expensive. The Army’s seemingly eternal mission in Iraq is readily creating experienced active Army units as they go back for their third and fourth deployments. Reserve and NG units have a tough learning curve, however.
Mangin, of Palmyra [PA], is providing training support to the Guard troops as they prepare to deploy. He said the Strykers are useful in counter-insurgency operations and working directly with the people of Iraq. He served in Mosul, Tal Afar and Baghdad.
“Our mission today is so much more humanitarian,” he said. “It’s not all about blowing stuff up. To win the hearts and minds, we must be out there as a presence 24/7.”
Mangin said the Stryker commanders made it a point to form relationships with the local police, Iraqi troops, mayors and other key players.
If an Iraqi citizen notifies the military of an insurgent holed up next door, for instance, a Stryker vehicle can be there in five minutes, according to Rambin.
“Hearts and minds” is the signature phrase of COIN warfare. It originated during the Viet Nam war, as the goal of combat, after grabbing them buy the balls. It didn’t work, then.
There are some who argue it will not work here, since the US is embroiled in a long-term occupation in the midst of a civil war being fought out by three or four groups battling for domestic political supremacy. Pessimists, who actually call themselves realists, argue that they are fighting to see which group will have the political authority to throw us out of their country.
Mr Cheney and his friends in Big Oil insist that's not going to happen in this century.
