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How Bush Took Us to the Dark Side

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com. Posted January 5, 2008.


There are dire consequences that Americans will have to face now that torture and imprisonment of innocent people is everyday government practice.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
-- Emma Lazarus, 1883


If you don't mind thinking about the Bush legacy a year early, there are worse places to begin than with the case of Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lilliendahl. Admittedly, she isn't an ideal "tempest-tost" candidate for Emma Lazarus' famous lines engraved on a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty. After all, she flew to New York City with her girlfriends, first class, from her native Iceland, to partake of "the Christmas spirit." She was drinking white wine en route and, as she put it, "look[ing] forward to go shopping, eat good food, and enjoy life." On an earlier vacation trip, back in 1995, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks, a modest enough infraction, and had even returned the following year without incident.



This time -- with the President's Global War on Terror in full swing -- she was pulled aside at passport control at JFK Airport, questioned about those extra three weeks 12 years ago, and soon found herself, as she put it, "handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep... without food and drink and... confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned." It was "the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected."



By her account, she was photographed, fingerprinted, asked rude questions -- "by men anxious to demonstrate their power. Small kings with megalomania" -- confined to a tiny room for hours, then chained, marched through the airport, and driven to a jail in New Jersey where, for another nine hours, she found herself "in a small, dirty cell." On being prepared for the return trip to JFK and deportation, approximately 24 hours after first debarking, she was, despite her pleas, despite her tears, again handcuffed and put in leg chains, all, as she put it, "because I had taken a longer vacation than allowed under the law."



On returning to her country, she wrote a blog about her unnerving experience and the Icelandic Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir met with U.S. Ambassador Carol van Voorst to demand an apology. Just as when egregious American acts in Iraq or Afghanistan won't go away, the Department of Homeland Security announced an "investigation," a "review of its work procedures" and expressed "regrets." But an admission of error or an actual apology? Uh, what era do you imagine we're living in?



Erla Ósk will undoubtedly think twice before taking another fun-filled holiday in the U.S., but her experience was no aberration among Icelanders visiting the U.S. In fact, it's a relatively humdrum one these days, especially if you appear to be of Middle Eastern background.



Take, for instance, 20-year veteran of the National Guard Zakariya Muhammad Reed (born Edward Eugene Reed, Jr.), who, for the last 11 years, has worked as a firefighter in Toledo, Ohio. Regularly crossing the Canadian border to visit his wife's family, he has been stopped so many times -- "I was put up against the wall and thoroughly frisked, any more thoroughly and I would have asked for flowers..." -- that he is a connoisseur of detention. He's been stopped five times in the last seven months and now chooses his crossing place based on the size of the detention waiting room he knows he'll end up in. It took several such incidents, during which no explanations were offered, before he discovered that he was being stopped in part because of his name and in part because of a letter he wrote to the Toledo Blade criticizing Bush administration policies on Israel and Iraq.



The first time, he was detained in a small room with two armed guards, while his wife and children were left in a larger common room. While he was grilled, she was denied permission to return to their car even to get a change of diapers for their youngest child. When finally released, Reed found his car had been "trashed." ("My son's portable DVD player was broken, and I have a decorative Koran on the dashboard that was thrown on the floor.") During another episode of detention, an interrogator evidently attempted to intimidate him by putting his pistol on the table at which they were seated. ("He takes the clip out of his weapon, looks at the ammunition, puts the clip back in, and puts it back in his holster.") His first four border-crossing detentions were well covered by Matthew Rothschild in a post at the Progressive Magazine's website. During his latest one, he was questioned about Rothschild's coverage of his case.



The essence of his experience is perhaps caught best in a comment by Customs and Border Protection agent made in his presence: "We should treat them like we do in the desert. We should put a bag over their heads and zip tie their hands together."



Or take Nabil Al Yousuf, not exactly a top-ten candidate for the "huddled masses" category; nor an obvious terror suspect (unless, of course, you believe yourself at war with Islam or the Arab world). According to the Washington Post's Ellen Knickmeyer, Yousuf, who is "a senior aide to the ruler of the Persian Gulf state of Dubai," always has the same "galling" experience on entering the country:


"A U.S. airport immigration official typically takes Yousuf's passport, places it in a yellow envelope and beckons. Yousuf tells his oldest son and other family members not to worry. And Yousuf -- who goes by 'Your Excellency' at home -- disappears inside a shabby back room. He waits alongside the likes of 'a man who had forged his visa and a woman who had drugs in her tummy'... He is questioned, fingerprinted and photographed."


Despite his own fond memories of attending universities in Arizona and Georgia, Yousuf has decided to send his son to college... in Australia. Knickmeyer adds:


"A generation of Arab men who once attended college in the United States, and returned home to become leaders in the Middle East, increasingly is sending the next generation to schools elsewhere. This year, Australia overtook the United States as the top choice of citizens of the United Arab Emirates heading abroad for college, according to government figures here."


This is what "homeland security" means in the United States today. It means putting your country in full lockdown mode. It means the snarl at the border, the nasty comment in the waiting room, the dirty cell, the handcuffs, even the chains. It means being humiliated. It means a thorough lack of modulation or moderation. Arriving here now always threatens to be a "tempest-tost" experience whether you are a citizen, a semi-official visitor, or a foreign tourist. (After all, even Sen. Ted Kennedy found himself repeatedly on a no-fly list without adequate explanation.) Think of these three cases as snapshots from the borders of a country in which the presumption of innocence is slowly being drained of all meaning.



News from Nowhere




So far, of course, we've only been talking about the lucky ones. After all, Erla Ósk, Zakariya Muhammad Reed, and Nabil Al Yousuf all made it home relatively quickly. In the final weeks of 2007, a little flood of press reports tracked more extreme versions of the global lockdown the Bush administration launched in late 2001, cases in which, after the snarl, the door clanged shut and home became the barest of hopes.



Take, for example, a December 1st Washington Post piece in which reporter Craig Whitlock revealed one more small part of the CIA's global network of secret imprisonment. We already knew, among other things, that the CIA had set up and run its own secret prisons in Eastern Europe and probably in Thailand; that it had a network of secret sites in Afghanistan like "the Salt Pit" near Kabul; that it may have used the "British" island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as well as American ships, naval and possibly commercial, to hold prisoners beyond the purview of any authority or even the visits of the International Red Cross; that it ran an air fleet of leased executive jets (including some from Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of Boeing, which made it back into the news in December because of a lawsuit launched by the ACLU); that these were used to transport terror suspects it snatched up off city streets or battlefields anywhere on the planet to its own "black sites" or which it "rendered" in "extraordinary" manner to the jails and torture chambers of Syria, Egypt, Uzbekistan, and other lands whose agents had no qualms about torturing and abusing prisoners.



Whitlock, however, added a new piece to the CIA's incarceration puzzle: an "imposing building" on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan. This turns out to be the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department, Jordan's powerful spy and security agency (and the CIA's closest Arab ally in the Middle East). Known as a place where torture is freely applied, it has been a way-station for "CIA prisoners captured in other countries." The first terror suspects kidnapped by Agency operatives were, it seems, flown to Jordan and housed in that building before Guantanamo was up and running or the Agency had been able to set up its own secret prisons elsewhere. There, the prisoners were hidden, even from the International Red Cross. To cite but one case Whitlock mentions:


"Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a Yemeni microbiology student, was captured in a U.S.-Pakistani operation in Karachi a few weeks after 9/11 on suspicion of helping to finance al-Qaeda operations. Witnesses reported seeing masked men take him aboard a Gulfstream V jet at the Karachi airport Oct. 24, 2001. Records show that the plane was chartered by a CIA front company and that it flew directly to Amman. Mohammed has not been seen since. Amnesty International said it has asked the Jordanian government for information on his whereabouts but has not received an answer."


Also in December, because of that lawsuit against Jeppesen, we got our first insider's account of the CIA "black sites" (and, thanks to Salon.com, even architectural plans for a few of the interrogation rooms and prison cells at those sites, all of which seem to have cameras in them). It was here that "high-value targets" were incarcerated, isolated, and subjected to various "enhanced interrogation techniques."



Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a Yemeni, was picked up by the Jordanians in Amman in 2003 and tortured into signing a "full confession" (to acts he had not committed). He was then turned over to the CIA and flown to Kabul (and possibly Eastern Europe as well) where he was imprisoned. He has offered in-depth accounts that give a sense of what those "enhanced interrogation techniques" the Bush administration sponsors so enthusiastically are all about at a personal level. In the end, while in CIA custody, Bashmilah was driven to several suicide attempts, including one in which, using a bit of metal, he slashed his wrist and wrote, "I am innocent," on a cell wall in his own blood.



Here is just part of a description he offered Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! of being prepared for transport by CIA air taxi into black-site hell:


"And then they put... like little plugs inside the ears, plastic. And then they put gauze on that, on the ears. And then they taped that with very strong adhesive tape. And then they put a hood over my head. And then, on top of that, they put a headphone. This is as far as the top of my body was. And then they handcuffed me with a chain, and also they chained my ankles. Then they put a belt above the pants, and then they tied the hands and the ankles to that belt. This was after being slapped and kicked until I almost fainted."


In his cell in a secret prison in Afghanistan, "[i]n the beginning, it was totally dark. It was as if you were inside a tomb. Then, after that, they would turn a light on. Above the door, there was a camera. And there was constant loud music." From then on, neither the lights, nor the music went off. As Mark Benjamin of Salon.com wrote, "His leg shackles were chained to the wall. The guards would not let him sleep, forcing Bashmilah to raise his hand every half hour to prove he was still awake... Guards wore black pants with pockets, long-sleeved black shirts, rubber gloves or black gloves, and masks that covered the head and neck. The masks had tinted yellow plastic over the eyes. 'I never heard the guards speak to each other and they never spoke to me,' Bashmilah wrote in his declaration...



"After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him [in Yemen] with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered."



No charges, no lawyers, no judge. This is increasingly the norm of -- and a legacy of -- George Bush's world. In this way, the snarl at the borders melds with the screams of terror in cells worldwide.



Embedded Reports from the Dark Side



A new Pentagon term came into use in the Bush era. With the invasion of Iraq, reporters were said to be "embedded" in U.S. military units. That term -- so close in sound to "in bed with" -- should have wider uses. You could, for instance, say that Americans have, since September 2001, been "embedded," largely willingly, in a new lockdown universe defined by a general acceptance of widespread acts of torture and abuse, as well as of the right to kidnap (known as "extraordinary rendition"), and the creation and expansion of an offshore Bermuda Triangle of injustice, all based on the principle that a human being is guilty unless proven (sometimes even if proven) innocent. What might originally have seemed like emergency measures in a moment of crisis is now an institutionalized way of life. Whether we like it or not, these methods increasingly define what it means to be an American. In this manner, despite the "freedom" rhetoric of the Bush administration, the phrase "the price of freedom" has been superseded by the price of what passes for "safety" and "security."



Media coverage of such subjects reflects this. The cases above, all reported in December, barely scratch the surface of this universe. Just a glance at other December stories -- some barely attended to, or dealt with by minor outlets or in humdrum ways, but many well covered in major papers and still causing little consternation -- indicates just how normalized all this has become.



A legacy can often be framed in words. So here's a little rundown of just some areas in which, when it came to torture, kidnapping, and offshore imprisonment, 2007 ended in a deluge, not a trickle:



Destroyed Tapes: One issue connected to torture -- sorry, "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- did get major coverage last month, the revelation on the front page of the December 6th New York Times of the destruction, in 2005, of hundreds of hours of CIA videotapes of the first two major interrogations, including waterboardings, of al-Qaeda operatives -- in this case, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. In the weeks that followed, responsibility for the decision to destroy those tapes has been creeping ever higher, with four key lawyers connected to the White House and the Vice President's office brought into the mix in mid-December, and reports that the chief of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, Jose A. Rodriguez, who ordered their destruction, may soon testify before Congress under immunity and implicate as yet unnamed higher-ups.



As with all such cover-up stories, this one can only get worse. It has already been reported in the Wall Street Journal that the faces of more senior CIA officials, not just low-level interrogators, may have been caught on those tapes from the administration's secret torture chambers. We are sure to learn that these were hardly the only interrogations taped by the Agency. As yet, by the way, almost all attention has gone to the destruction of the tapes, little to why they were made in the first place. As December ended, however, Scott Shane of the New York Times wrote a piece, "Tapes by CIA Lived and Died to Save Image," with this telling line from the CIA's then number three official, A. B. Krongard: "You want interrogators in training to watch the tapes." Think about that a moment. The Justice Department, which, along with the CIA's Inspector General, launched an investigation of the tape destruction under pressure, also attempted to shut down congressional investigations of the same -- unsuccessfully.



Kidnapping Is the Law: According to the British Sunday Times, "A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the U.S. Supreme Court has sanctioned it." According to that lawyer, the precedent "goes back to bounty hunting days in the 1860s." This applies, it seems, not just to terror suspects in extraordinary rendition cases, but to white businessmen wanted for, say, fraud. "The American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington." International human rights lawyer Scott Horton writes at his No Comment blog:


"This is not U.S. law, it is a Bush Administration hallucination as to U.S. law... The sort of nightmare which refuses to recognize the sovereignty of foreign states or the solemn commitments of U.S. governments over the last two centuries in treaties and conventions. The sort of nightmare that refuses to recognize the 'law of nations' referred to by the Founding Fathers and incorporated into the Constitution."


Innocence at Guantanamo: New military and court documents were released in December, thanks to a suit by lawyers representing Murat Kurnaz, that further illuminated the case of the 19-year old German citizen who "chose a bad time to travel." Kurnaz was captured by the U.S. Army in Pakistan in 2002 and transported to Guantanamo. There, within months, according to the Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig, "his American captors concluded that he was not a terrorist." This was the consensus of intelligence officials. He was nonetheless declared a "dangerous al-Qaeda ally" by successive military tribunals at the prison and was not released until August 2006 when he was flown to freedom in Germany "goggled, masked and bound, as he had been when he was flown to Guantanamo Bay."



Evidence from Waterboarding: According to Josh White of the Washington Post, Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, "[t]he top legal adviser for the military trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees told Congress... that he cannot rule out the use of evidence derived from the CIA's aggressive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding." He even refused to say that waterboarding would be illegal if used by the interrogators of another country on U.S. military personnel. In a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, like his boss Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Mark Filip, the administration's nominee for second-in-command at the Justice Department, also refused to take a stand on waterboarding, even though he called it "repugnant."



Torture Veto: In December, President Bush threatened to "veto a House [of Representatives] bill that would explicitly ban a variety of abhorrent practices. The bill would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow interrogation rules adopted by the armed forces last year."



Torturers speak out: In December, two figures connected with U.S. torture practices spoke out. John Kiriakou, a CIA agent involved in capturing top al-Qaeda operatives, gave interviews to ABC and NBC News in which he called waterboarding "torture," regretted its use ("we Americans are better than that"), and also insisted that "[t]his was a policy made at the White House, with concurrence from the National Security Council and justice department." In the meantime, Damien Corsetti, a former private in the U.S. Army who served as an interrogator in Kabul, Afghanistan (and was nicknamed the "king of torture" and "the monster" by his colleagues at Bagram prison), gave an interview to the Spanish paper El Mundo, describing the beatings and torture techniques used there. ("They tell them they are going to kill their children, rape their wives. And you see on their faces, in their eyes, the terror that that causes them. Because, of course, we know all about those people. We know the names of their children, where they live -- we show them satellite photos of their houses. It is worse than any torture.") He also claimed that 98% of the prisoners, as far as he could tell, had nothing to do with either al-Qaeda or the Taliban, and observed, "In Abu-Ghurayb and Bagram they were tortured to make them suffer, not to get information out of them." Both men denied themselves torturing or mistreating anyone.



Justice Moves Fast: The Justice Department, which dragged its feet on those destroyed CIA videotapes (and then tried to submarine a congressional investigation of the same), nonetheless reacted strongly to the horrors of torture in another context. Its officials moved swiftly to investigate whether former agent John Kiriakou, in giving that interview about waterboarding to ABC News, had "illegally disclosed classified information in describing the capture and waterboarding of an al-Qaeda terrorism suspect." Consider that a message about priorities from the powers that be.



Iraqis in American Jails: Latest estimates are that up to 30,000 Iraqis are now held in American prisons in Iraq. While this figure falls 10,000 short of the number of Iraqis American commander Gen. David Petraeus believed might be arrested during the "surge" months in Baghdad and elsewhere, it does add up, as Juan Cole points out at his Informed Comment website, to 0.1% of what's left of the Iraqi population, or approximately one out of every 1,000 Iraqis.



Think of these eight stories as themselves only the tip of December's melting iceberg of news on such topics. You could no less easily write about lawyer Andrew Williams, a JAG officer with the Naval Reserves, who resigned his commission in response to the unwillingness of Gen. Hartmann "to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture." In a letter to The Peninsula Gateway of Gig Harbor, Washington, Williams wrote in part:


"Thank you, General Hartmann, for finally admitting the United States is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the Inquisition.... Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese Kempeitai... Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Most recently, the U.S. Army court martialed a soldier for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict.



"General Hartmann, following orders was not an excuse for anyone put on trial in Nuremberg, and it will not be an excuse for you or your superiors, either. Despite the CIA and the administration attempting to cover up the practice by destroying interrogation tapes, in direct violation of a court order, and congressional requests, the truth about torture, illegal spying on Americans and secret renditions is coming out."


Or you could mention the news that the "Australian Taliban," David Hicks, the sole person actually convicted on terrorism charges at Guantanamo, was released after serving a nine-month sentence in Australia (and five years of non-sentence time in Cuba); or the first reports on the Internet of speculation in Washington that George Bush himself might have viewed parts of those CIA interrogation tapes, or the Washington Post report that, in 2002, four key Congressional figures, including Nancy Pelosi, had been given "a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk," including waterboarding, without objections being raised. Or... but the list is almost unending.



The Bush Legacy




As a people, we Americans have not faintly come to grips with how centrally the Bush administration has planted certain practices in our midst -- at the very heart of governmental practice, of the news, of everyday life. Many of these practices were not in themselves creations of this administration. For instance, the practice of kidnapping abroad -- "rendition" -- began at least in the Clinton era, if not earlier. Waterboarding, a medieval torture, was first practiced by American troops in the Philippine insurrection at the dawn of the previous century. (It was then known as "the water cure.")



Torture of various sorts was widely used in CIA interrogation centers in Vietnam in the 1960s. Back in that era, the CIA also ran its own airline, Air America, rather than just leasing planes from various corporate entities through front businesses. Abu Ghraib-style torture and abuse, pioneered by the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s, was taught and used by American military, CIA, and police officials in Latin America from the 1960s into the 1980s. If you doubt any of this, just check out Alfred McCoy's still shocking book, A Question of Torture. Even offshore secret CIA prisons aren't a unique creation of the Bush administration. According to Tim Weiner in his new history of the Central Intelligence Agency, Legacy of Ashes, in the 1950s the Agency had three of them -- in Japan, Germany, and the Panama Canal Zone -- where they brought double agents of questionable loyalty for "secret experiments" in harsh interrogation, "using techniques on the edge of torture, drug-induced mind control, and brainwashing."



And yet, don't for a second think that nothing has changed. Part of the Bush legacy lies in a new ethos in this country. In my childhood in the 1950s, for example, we knew just who the torturers were. We saw them in the movies. They were the sadistic Japanese in their prison camps, the Gestapo in their prisons, and the Soviet Secret police, the KGB, in their gulags (even if that name hadn't yet entered our world). As the President now says at every opportunity, and as we then knew, Americans did not torture.



Today, and it's a measure of our changing American world, a child turning on the TV serial "24" or heading for the nearest hot, new action flick at the local multiplex knows that Americans do torture and that torture, once the cultural province of our most evil enemies, is now a practice that is 100% all-American and perfectly justifiable (normally by the ticking-bomb scenario). And few even blink. In lockdown America, it computes. The snarl at the border fits well enough with what our Vice President has termed a "no-brainer," a "dunk in the water" in the torture chamber. There is no deniability left in the movies -- and little enough of it in real life.



American presidents of the Vietnam and Latin American war years operated in a realm of deniability when it came to torture and other such practices. No American could then have imagined a Vice President heading for Capitol Hill to lobby openly for a torture bill or a President publicly threatening to veto congressional legislation banning torture techniques. Call it the end of an era of American hypocrisy, if you will, but the Bush legacy will be, in part, simply the routinization of the practice of torture, abuse, kidnapping, and illegal imprisonment.



George W. Bush didn't invent the world he inhabits. He, his top officials, and all their lawyers who wrote those bizarre "torture memos" that will be hallmarks of his era chose from existing strains of thought, from urges and tendencies already in American culture. But their record on this has, nonetheless, been remarkable. In just about every case, they chose to bring out the worst in us; in just about every case, they took us on as direct a journey as possible to the dark side.



It's not necessary to romanticize the American past in any way to consider the legacy of these last years grim indeed. Let no one tell you that the institution of a global network of secret prisons and borrowed torture chambers, along with those "enhanced interrogation techniques," was primarily done for information or even security. The urge to resort to such tactics is invariably more primal than that.



Words matter more than one would think. In the Bush era, certain words have simply been sidelined. Sovereignty, for instance. If, in principle, you can kidnap anyone, anywhere, and transport that person into a ghost existence anywhere else, then national sovereignty essentially no longer has significance. This is one meaning of "globalization" in the twenty-first century. On Planet Bush, only one nation remains "sovereign," and that's the United States of America.



If you want to test this proposition, just take any case mentioned above, from Erla Ósk's landing in New York on, and try to reverse it. Make an American the central victim and another country of your choice the perpetrator and imagine the reaction of the Bush administration, no less the American media and the public (no matter what Gen. Hartmann may be unwilling to say about the waterboarding of an American serviceman).



Or consider another word that once had great resonance in American culture, not to speak of its legal system: innocence. Americans prided themselves on their "innocence" -- even when mocked as "innocents abroad" -- and took pride as well in a system based on the phrase, "innocent until proven guilty."



Despite their repeated, thoroughly worn denials about torture, the top officials of this administration remade themselves, in the wake of the attacks of 9/11, as a Torture, Inc. And their actions since then have gone a long way toward turning us, by association and tacit acquiescence, into a nation of torturers, willing to accept, in case after case, that a "war" against "terror" supposed to last for generations justifies just about any act imaginable, including the continued mistreatment and incarceration of people who remain somehow guilty even, in certain cases, after being proven innocent.



This is the American welcome wagon of the twenty-first century. If you really want to catch the spirit of the Bush legacy one year early, try to imagine the poem an Emma Lazarus of this moment might write, something appropriate for a gigantic statue in New York harbor of a guard from Mohamed Bashmilah's living nightmare -- dressed all in black, a black mask covering his head and neck, tinted yellow plastic over the eyes, a man, hands sheathed in rubber gloves, holding up not a torch but a video camera and dragging chains.

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Tom Engelhardt, editor of Tomdispatch.com, is co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of The End of Victory Culture.

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The cost is incalculable
Posted by: vox persona on Jan 5, 2008 1:25 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The nightmare that is the CheneyBu$hCo crime syndicate still has a year to run, but its reverberations will be felt for generations. We went from 'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' to 'Torture, detention and the pursuit of extraordinary rendition'. Homeland Security? Why not Fatherland Security? Or Motherland security? We've adopted nazi nomenclature, co-opted their techniques, and make no mistake there are dark forces run amok. If we can survive the torture that is this illegitimate administration, maybe, just maybe, we stand a chance of turning this thing around. Bush has squandered any moral high ground and reduced us to the lowest common denominator of our enemy. We've been spending over $4,000 per second since this "war' in Iraq started, in a bald-faced full scale transfer from taxpayers to war profiteerts and the military/industrial/ complex. Bush's corporate masters must be well pleased. Mission accomplished.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

drew
Posted by: drew on Jan 5, 2008 2:43 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While administration is, appropriately, given responsibility for these atrocities, i am as disconcerted by the number of fellow American citizens, who, when these issues are raised,simply make a response such as "well, we have to protect ourselves". People holding these perspectives are not only failing to reflect values of decency, they are failing to ask questions about the strategic long term effects of our practices and questions about the efficacy of our practices. Ironically, they are defeating the very protection they are seeking.

We should be equally concerned that the criminality of bush and his minions is supported by enough Americans, and passively accepted by many more, to make these crimes not a statement about the administration but a fundamental statement about America. The active or passive acceptance that has come from the grass roots and is not simply a result of the promotions, practices and dispositions of our elected officials. The rage that will change this bestiality will also need to emerge from the common sentiment of citizens. The development of strong fundamental core values (that do not apparently exist now),and more citizens who not only are guided by moral decency but who uniformly ask what strategic, long term effects policies and practices have will be necessary. i don't really know if this is possible, but until we do have that kind of change, there will be political capital to gain by leading us to be the kind of people we have become. Bush is responsible but we also need to realize that we, as a nation, are responsible and recognize our accountability.

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» RE: drew Posted by: billtc
» RE: drew Posted by: MindyB
America's growing isolation
Posted by: SENILEBIKER on Jan 5, 2008 2:54 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As each year of Bush's presidency has past, the status of the US has diminished, from the heightd of the sympathetic outpouring after 911 to today, when the US's last significant ally - the UK - has all but pulled out of supporting the US foreign policy in Iraq.

This growing isolation is not just on the level of intergovernment relations, but the number of visitors to the US is lower now than in 2000, whereas all other areas of the travel/leisure industry have seen double digit growth.

As a European, living and working in the Middle East, with a fondness for participating in discussions as this, I fear that the detentions described at the borders could easily happen to me - wrong stamps in my passport - expressed views on the Bush?Cheney administration. I have visisted the States maybe 20 times, and I love New York, Boston, New Mexico - but goodbye to all that.

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» RE: I apologize Posted by: Ripcord
» RE: I apologize Posted by: maxfactor
» RE: I apologize Posted by: Bosquésillo
How to Help Reverse This Hurtle to the Dark Side
Posted by: aharlib on Jan 5, 2008 3:34 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
IMPEACHMENT would help end the fascist nightmare that is happening to the USA. Getting rid of those criminals in the White House must be the top priority, the #1 issue. Impeachment won't dismantle the huge apparatus of torture, extraordinary renditions and black sites, but it would send a clear signal to the citizens of this country and the world that there is an effort being made to right the wrongs, restore Constitutional ideals and punish the highest level perpetrators.

Impeach Cheney and Bush NOW

Defense of the Constitution Knows No Party


The Bush administration has illegally seized and imprisoned Americans without benefit of their trial by jury, has spied on Americans without warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, has lied America into a disastrous war, and has betrayed an American intelligence officer, who was working on weapons of mass destruction networks, to our enemies (Valerie Plame.)

Impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney are now a distinct possibility, thanks to a recent outpouring of public support for impeachment by Americans across the political spectrum. Your calls and faxes to House Judiciary Committee members are needed to keep up the pressure.

Leave a message for your Congressman, to demand he obey his oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Act now to restore your rights and the rule of law bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers, which brave men have died defending throughout our history.

Call the House Judiciary Committee

202-225-3951
and demand that Impeachment hearings begin ASAP!





*What Happened to Make This All Possible?

On November 6, 2007, Rep. Dennis Kucinich brought H.Res.333, for the impeachment of Cheney, to the House Floor for debate. It was broadcast on CSPAN. A sudden outpouring of public support for impeachment forced lawmakers to keep the resolution alive. Democrats, most of whom currently resist demands for impeachment, were unwilling to kill the bill with the public watching. Republicans and some Democrats, mindful of impeachment sentiment, voted to debate the bill, but failed. At the end of the day, Americans of both parties had made it clear whose "table" this is, and that they want to see impeachment on it.



For more information go to
NEImpeach.org

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Compassionate Conservatism
Posted by: Tom Degan on Jan 5, 2008 3:55 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Im gonna restore honor and integraty to the White House"
George W. Bush 2000

Don'cha just love it?

After almost seven years of this corrupt, hideous, half-witted little piece of shit in the White House, it doesn't take a political Rhodes Scholar to conclude that sending George W. Bush to the White House was the worst electoral mistake in American history.

I have a confession to make: I have dreams of waterboarding the president of the United States.

Do you want to hear something even more shocking? I plan on going through with it.

Someday, somehow, I am going to confront George W. Bush in an unguarded moment, strap the little bastard down and give him a full two hours of pure, terror. It'll probably be in a post-presidential period but it's going to happen, I promise you. For two solid hours he'll be drowning - or at least that's what he'll think. That's going to be a whole lot of fun to watch.

NOTE TO THE SECRET SERVICE:
WATERBOARDING IS PERFECTLY LEGAL

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan

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» RE: Compassionate Conservatism Posted by: papananook
» RE: knock it off Tom Posted by: Ripcord
» CLARIFICATION: Posted by: Tom Degan
» I hope they don't take you away Posted by: fearless flower
» RE: OK Tom Posted by: Ripcord
» RE: OK Tom Posted by: Tom Degan
» RE: Whew, nice clarification Posted by: Ripcord
» RE: Whew, nice clarification Posted by: Tom Degan
» Thought Crimes Posted by: Artkansas
» RE: Thought Crimes Posted by: MindyB
» RE: OK Tom Posted by: MindyB
» RE: CLARIFICATION: Posted by: MindyB
» RE: go ahead, Posted by: Ripcord
» Tom recanted Posted by: Ripcord
» RE: Tom recanted Posted by: Tom Degan
» LESSON LEARNED: Posted by: Tom Degan
» Agreed, mostly Posted by: LeeAnnG
» RE: LESSON LEARNED: Posted by: MindyB
» RE: Compassionate Conservatism Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
otto
Posted by: otto on Jan 5, 2008 5:19 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Great article! Things have certainly gotten much darker in the Bush administration, but it is part of a bigger and older problem. The government has been able to do too much surveillance on us all for too long a time. In the 80's I was shocked to have a Canadian friend stopped by Immigration while coming to our Church in Detroit; she was told inside that she had better be more careful about taking part in demonstrations on our side of the border. A few days before we had marched in front of the federal building with about 40 others, against the Contra War in Nicaragua. We saw people inside taking pictures of all of us; but I was shocked that the government was able to check and find this Canadian citizen and keep track of her movements to Detroit. Big Brother watching? I think so!

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The Campaign is a Distraction
Posted by: Urstrly on Jan 5, 2008 5:41 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We must let go of our infatuation with the idea that Democrats are going to win the 2008 election and sweep all of these atrocities into the dustbin of history. As the last two elections have shown, the Republicans have many ways of holding onto power. Impeachment is the only way to officially censor this sadistic mockery of our Consitution. And, should the Democrats win, the temptation to indulge these secret prisons and their torture will be removed.

I'm with the protesters who sat in the office of US Rep. Jerry Nadler, a NY Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee, to urge him to introduce impeachment charges against Cheney and Bush. Our so-called liberal representatives have been silent too long.

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» RE: The Campaign is a Distraction Posted by: monkeywrench
SSSS
Posted by: Artkansas on Jan 5, 2008 5:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
SSSS, that's what they print on your ticket when they have decided that you should be singled out for excessive scrutiny. Its been printed on my tickets twice, and given the circumstances, I don't think it's random.

My horror story of traveling this Christmas season certainly wasn't quite as bad as those in the story, but still it was completely ridiculous.

I'm not sure what set them off. Maybe it was the Cactus Candy that I picked up in Phoenix or maybe it was that I had add a segment to my trip, going up to my father's in Seattle and back and then connecting to original reserved flight out of Phoenix so that I had to go out of security in terminal 4 and back in in terminal 2. Or maybe it was that my original flight got canceled, and the airline scheduled me to later flights that would have been hard to arrive at a proper time and a kind ticket agent rebooked me on a direct flight on another airline. It was something suspicious like that.

I mention the Cactus Candy because something in my backpack set them off and they decided that my stuff should be inspected visually when I went through security in Seattle. I had it when I went through security going from Phoenix to Seattle without problem. But then they sell Cactus Candy in the Sky Harbor gift stores so the agents know what it is...

Well, they found nothing, because there was nothing. I fly from Seattle to Phoenix. Discover about the flight changes and get the direct flight to Newark and the ticket has the SSSS code on it.

So I get back into the security check out awaiting the inevitable confrontation. I'm singled out and told to stand in the glassed off area. A young man comes in and starts interogating me. I know that they ask questions in a bullying way designed to get a rise out of you. He asks me my name. I respond. He says "That seems kind of familiar..." His implication is??? He then tries to get me to identify my luggage which is starting to come out of the xray machine. Given how long I have been standing there, it must have gotten the intense inspection. I point at the one piece that has come into view. He feigns surprise. "Is that ALL the luggage you have? More has come out by then and I point at my two bags and two trays.

Then I'm hauled off, wanded in a cursory way, and then he takes numerous samples from my luggage for the bomb chemical detection machine. And having found nothing he has to give up.

Its a small thing, and it's not. Its hard to describe how things were said. That's body language and tone of voice. But I was felt I was being treated as though I were a criminal. Guilty until proven innocent. These days, aren't we all?

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» RE: SSSS Posted by: peacefullaim
» RE: SSSS Posted by: Dboy
» RE: SSSS Posted by: Artkansas
The Miranda warning
Posted by: surfreality on Jan 5, 2008 6:22 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i.e. the "right to remain silent", came about as the result of repeated and consistent police abuse of suspects in custody. A lot of innocent suspects were "confessing" to crimes they did not commit as a result of police interrogation tactics. Today we would call those tactics "enhanced interrogation techniques" back then it was called "the 3rd degree". So, yes, torture has always been an issue in the land of the free and the home of the brave and Americans with morals and ethics have been fighting this scourge in our culture for a long long time.
Torture is a fear based policy.
It was not our policy to torture Japanese POWs during WWII, even though they severely mistreated our service people. We did not torture captured German spies or scientists even though we knew they were racing to build an atomic bomb, which they would then promptly drop on us. We were in far more danger as a country at the beginning of WWII then we are now. Why are we so much more afraid?
Because our leaders sell fear. This is how they gain control. This is how they consolidate power and enrich themselves and their friends. Fear.
Torture is a fear based policy and only cowards employ it. Americans need to call the small minded and tiny hearted potentates out and expose their tactics for what they are as brutal, criminal and cynical grabs for power.
The use of torture, rendition and secret gulags needs to be an issue in every congressional race in 08. The American people have to tell the politicians who it is that we really are and who we want to be; because if we don't they will assume the worst, just like George Bush does.

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» RE: The Miranda warning Posted by: Lauren
The elites have implemented a police state using propaganda and prisons to control us.
Posted by: Missing Piece on Jan 5, 2008 7:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bushies committed a false flag because of peak oil and democrats have done nothing, in fact they have supported him on most bills. Our future will get worse as oil depletion starts around 2012.

They have done this because cheap abundant energy is going to be out of reach for the masses in 4 years. How are they going to control us when people start waking up and demanding more from there democracy. The system works, it is the citizens that are broke and the elites know this and they know they will start participating in the system when the good times are over.

The elites have put us on a resource war path, instead of a sustainable path like Carter tried to do. It started when Reagen took the solar panels off the white house. Good luck, a war for resources is futile because the war itself is resource intensive. Imagine if we would have put the money and man power we have in Iraq into windpower, solar and battery technology. Well lets just say oil would probably be at ten dollars a barrell again and "terroists" would have less money because of it. Ahhhh but so would the oil company's, military industrial complex and all the corporation who invest in them.

What we are doing now just intensifies the problem, we fight for resources and use those resources to make bombs, which increases the need for more resources. Evil begates Evil and that is the world we will live in as long as we don't vote and think we have to have a flat screen t.v.


The only way to keep the elites from winning is stop buying crap, grow your own food, live off the grid, and never burrow money. Sounds like a crappy life doesn't it, you might be surprised how much freedom you have once you do it.

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Bush's sadism manifested
Posted by: sophia on Jan 5, 2008 7:18 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am reading "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President" written by Dr. Justin A. Frank, a psychoanalyst who has a lot to say about what is emotionally wrong with Bush, his professional ideas on what happened to him to make him this way and what the implications are having a severely emotionally-disturbed man in the seat of the presidency. We are seeing the results. Every time he opens up his mouth, he lies and the world becomes a darker place. I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially people in Congress. Bush needs a serious treatment program to recover his humanity, if that is possible. Like an out-of-control drunk, he is leading us down the path of destruction and he is clueless as to how destructive and deluded he is. He is a sociopath without conscience. I dread him being in power one more year.

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» RE: Bush's sadism manifested Posted by: Tom Degan
The Shrub is a Neo-BOOB sadist!
Posted by: williameon on Jan 5, 2008 8:38 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Democrats are afraid to make a stand.
For good reason!
Because The Cor’pirate’ FASCIST dirt bags are still
Standing in the shadows
Ready to assassinate all opposition.
Where would we be if the brightest and best amongst us was running our Government?
Instead of this evil, selfish, cruel, petty Tyrant?
How many martyrs do you need before you realize that the system is morally bankrupt?
Their system is evil and corrupt.
Its self imploding from the weight of its own GREED!
Stand back and take a seat.
They began the destruction themselves,
When they knocked down the Towers!
Become self sufficient and self reliant.
Organic gardens,
Renewable energy and Green houses.
Forget The Schlock Market and
Invest in your own Communities and yourselves.
The Government has been taken over by special interest.
Wealthy Corpirate Interests.
Instead of protecting us,
They have enslaved us!
The Grim Reality remains,
We live in a Military Dictatorship.
When we free ourselves from this Religion of Violence
And we become more cooperative, truly compassionate, helpful and peaceful.
Only then will we be able to effect positive political change.
We are being dictated to by Prehistoric Fossils!
Old Dinosaurs left over from a bygone age!
The FOSSIL FUEL AGE.
We are standing in the middle of a Technology War between
Renewable and BLACK!
Dead Eye Dick and Shrub are the products of
Dirty old twentieth century technology.
They beat the same old drums of ignorance and WAR!
We have nothing left to give.
The people have been bled dry!
Let the chips fall where they may.
Bring The Militia Home!
Rebuild and protect America first.
Provide subsidence and health to all,
Instead of Death and Destruction to a few.
Shut, The WAR Machine down and
Energy prices will drop by half.

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An Undiscussed Aspect Of Torture
Posted by: TarryFaster on Jan 5, 2008 9:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What is rarely brought up is the intimidation and fear that simply knowing about torture brings to the rest of the population. A populace that is cowered by just the prospect of torture is MUCH more easily cowered and thus controlled.

To get an idea of where these sociopaths learned these brutal lessons, click here.

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» click the link above Posted by: plantland
Torture Is Now Part Of Every American
Posted by: QQOblivion on Jan 5, 2008 9:49 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Torturers are EVIL sadistic fucking monsters. Those who support torture politically, even if such torture is only against the guilty, are monsters as well. (And keep in mind the 98%-are-innocent estimate given in the article.)
And waterboarding is sunshine and cotton-candy compared to some other forms of torture and extreme sexual humiliation inflicted on the (mostly innocent) detainees by US interrogators.

Torture is the new American zeitgeist. It is now part of every American. I don't think any of us can ever again be free... or forgiven.

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At the very least, outlaw handcuffs for interviews
Posted by: plantland on Jan 5, 2008 10:54 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems to be part of not yet sufficiently evolved human nature to exploit crumbs of power.

There are also too many weird sexual "ads" in entertainment involving handcuffs.

No one should be handcuffed to provide excitement for the worker. Since people get carried away, low level interviewers shouldn't be issued them.

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It's worth recalling some recent history -
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Jan 5, 2008 11:39 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Namely, that the only reason that the Saudi hijackers got into the U.S. was due to the privileged relationship between the Saudi regime and the Bush clan. Let's go back down the memory hole:

" J. Michael Springmann, formerly chief of the visa section at the U.S. Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, claims that he rejected hundreds of suspicious visa applications, but the C.I.A. officer overruled him and ordered the visas to be issued. Springmann protested to the State Department, the Office of Diplomatic Security, the F.B.I., the Justice Department and congressional committees, but was told to shut up. Springmann observed that 15 of the 19 people who allegedly flew airplanes into buildings in the United States got their visas from the same CIA-dominated consulate in Jeddah. As a special favor to residents of Saudi Arabia (including non-Saudi citizens), applicants for non-immigrant visas could apply at private travel agencies anywhere in Saudi Arabia and receive their U.S. visa through the mail. During the month following the 9/11 attack, 102 applicants received their visas by mail, 2 more were interviewed, and none were rejected."

See also
Hijackers Took Advantage of New, Anonymous Visa Express Procedure, 12-21-01

For a rather interesting rundown of ties between Saudis, private contractors, and the Bush Regime, see The Real Saudi Ties are U.S. Ties - Vinnell, Booze-Allen Hamilton, SAIC, BDM, TRW, Carlyle, etc. Criminal, or just embarrassing? Who knows?

The fact is, the Bush clan has been in bed with one of the most repulsive and anti-democratic regimes on the planet for decades - right next to the Burmese generals. That makes the media claims about "Bush's quest to bring democracy to the Middle East" look like blatant propaganda (which they are) - so the rule is, no discussion of the Saudi-Bush ties. In reality, the Saudi Royals have just as much influence over U.S. foreign policy as the Israeli lobby does. (And both Israel and Saudi Arabia are self-proclaimed religious states).

The point here is that pre-9/11 security arrangements, if implemented and observed, would have prevented the hijackings. The restrictions on civil liberties, the domestic spying programs, the Patriot act, the FISA act, Guantanamo and CIA black sites - none of that was needed. Such programs are really all about Bush's anti-democracy agenda - not about security.

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seenthisb4
Posted by: wehaveseenthismovieb4 on Jan 5, 2008 12:30 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dire consequences ... ah, yes.

http://www.freedomfchs.com/unwarranted_surveillance.pdf

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Tired of waiting for politics and politicians
Posted by: SevenStarHand on Jan 5, 2008 12:55 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...to defeat the war monger-profiteers and their greedy and deceptive backers? What would you do if given the pivotal wisdom required to drive a stake through the heart of these evil bloodsuckers' hidden power sources?

Use this special "gift" (rosenrot...) wisely...

Here is Wisdom...

Peace...

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Torture is Being Used to Feign Effectiveness Against Terror with the American Public
Posted by: sofla100 on Jan 5, 2008 1:12 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Torture is nothing more then an extension of the Bush "make-believe" war on terror. It's make believe because besides bothering and torturing some Americans and foreigners at the USA borders, it has done nothing to really discourage or prevent another 911. If anything, it has badly damaged the standing in the world of the USA and contributed, of course, to the rise of radical Islam as a backlash. But, besides this, consider that over 95% of all shipping containers coming into the USA are never searched. So you may be searched at the border, but freight trains of goods are coming in unscrutinized. Another fact, plans to force chemical companies to institute enhanced security standards, such as better fences, were never passed by Congress after intensive industry lobbying (too expensive the industry claimed). What we therefore have is a show by the American administration for the American public. And, torture is just part of the game. By instituting and using it, even if innocents are themselves tortured, doesn't matter to the American administration. What matters is that they believe the American public will respond positively anyway, because torture shows you are "being tough" and "not being a wimp."

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normalization of the practices...
Posted by: particle61 on Jan 5, 2008 1:25 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and the resulting societal consequences are the real legacy of this out-of-the-closet torture regime.

It would be impossible to argue that gwbush is anything but one in a long line of heads.of.state that sat atop an empire built on destruction or suppression of liberties, information manipulation, support of petty tyrants abroad and thugs here at home and the use of torture and detention. What gwbush and crew have achieved that is new is exemplified in the fact that we now think that extra-judicial imprisonment is to be referred to as 'detention' and enemies of the state, 'detainees'.

redstateupdate.net has followed the denuding of the constitution and the rise of the national security state here in Orange Alert America with both humor and prescience since 2005, see stories-

Police Want to See 'That Shock and That Awe' on City Streets-
Protesters in Prison: Patriot Act Provision Makes Dissent a Felony-
Spycam Network to be Manned by Virtual Vigilantes-
DHS Targets Suspected Tourists-
TSA Transferred To City Bus Stops-
Government Spy Agency Chooses AT&T as its Primary Service Provider-
NSA Domestic Spying Began Weeks After Bush Took Office-
Firm Plans Generation With Chip in its Shoulder-
FBI Political Surveillance Unit Undercovered-
DC Antiwar Protesters Bugged By Dragonfly Spy in the Sky-
Information Sharing Plan Fuses the Frightening and the Intrusive-
Kafkaesque Hearings a Model for Orwellian Tribunals-
Detention Liners and Subterranean Gulags-
UK Leased Tropical Island Torture Chamber to American Interrogators-
Court Backs Indefinite Military Detention For US Citizen-

and many more in the crowd control - one nation, under surveillance and interpreting the constitution archives, and a new gwbush cartoon every week

www.redstateupdate.net
funny, frightening, free
and no fake hill-billies

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Bye bye
Posted by: Hans B on Jan 5, 2008 2:30 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For me and many other non-Americans, it has been apparent for some years now that we must either (a) police ourselves (no contributions to Alternet.org and so on, no blog opinions, not too many Arab friends, no environmental or political militancy, etc.) or (b) accept that we can never again visit the US. I wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't chosen option (b). Even if the Repubs are voted out for a few years, they'll be back and they'll find all their spy files waiting for them. This can only go farther downhill, albeit after a four-year intermission. And our own countries are being dragged down in the US's wake, and we are seeing videocamera's pointed at us where they would have been unacceptable before, and immigrants treated in ways that would have raised massive protests a decade ago. The only redemption would have been impeachment but that apparently is "off the table". The year is 1932, with one big difference: this time around there is no Home of the Free strong enough to break fascism's back. I'm very pessimistic.

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I THINK WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Jan 5, 2008 3:12 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
After last night's Obama moment I read the following in one of the newspapers from the Mideast: "today is the day that the world fell back in love with the U.S." I think they're all just waiting for us to take the garbage out of the White House. ANNA

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» Apologies to Anna Posted by: JoAnne
VOCA, now!
Posted by: HeKnew on Jan 5, 2008 4:28 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The best-case endgame for the Bush administration is one where Bush and Cheney are found guilty of murder and treason, stood up against a wall and executed by firing squad.

How's that for dark, Mr. Bush?

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The Trickle Down Theory
Posted by: macdon1 on Jan 5, 2008 5:34 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bush's vile torture tactics and disregard for prisoners rights has "trickled down" down to the local level right here in California. Local law enforcement has been emboldened by what they see the Feds doing and are, no doubt, encouraged and rewarded by them. There is no presumption of innocence and people are interrogated and locked up before even being arrested, charged or read their Miranda rights. Because of Patriot Act changes now you can be held without charges for 48 hours which means no bail and often no contact with the outside world. They call it "being detained" (sound familiar?) During that time all manner of things are done to try to get you to "incriminate" yourself. There is no requirement to tape interrogations, so police can say and do anything they want and write down whatever they claim you said. It is your word against theirs, even if you refuse to sign the statement. Requests for access to an attorney are routinely denied and desperate prisoners are forced to sign documents to be let out on bail, the contents of which they are not allowed to read. Harsh plea bargain offers involving prison time and felony strikes based on the request of the police are made to prisoners before defense lawyers have even seen all the discovery materials. Exculpatory evidence is deliberately withheld in order to manipulate the facts to fit the decided upon charges. I know because it is happening to a member of my family who has never been arrested
before and was brutally railroaded. Gitmo has come to America.

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It Was Some Privatized Airport Screeners that Screwed Up Anyhow
Posted by: sofla100 on Jan 5, 2008 7:57 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Remember what actually happened. Some low bid, private security company was providing airport security. If these guys had been doing the job right, the terrorists would not even have gotten past them in the first place. Now we are to believe that by massive muti-billion dollar spying programs and some brutal police tactics, this will work better then properly screening people at the airport to begin with. Or the fact that most all shipping containers come into America unchecked can pass muster because massive spying and torture will prevent some terrorist type from sneaking something in using them? How much sense does that make?

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Sigh
Posted by: PandaBear on Jan 5, 2008 10:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Every day I grow more and more ashamed of my country.

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» RE: Sigh Posted by: Dboy
» RE: Sigh Posted by: libertyferall
Thank you, Tom, for telling it like it is
Posted by: libertyferall on Jan 6, 2008 1:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Tom,

I appreciate yet another hard-hitting article about torture by the U.S. which helps to tear off the blinkers Americans have been wearing. I have been working for years to get an investigation of the use of torture on Diego Garcia. Still nothing has been done. I have not yet seen one article by a leading U.S. journalist that tackles the problem of Diego Garcia. It's always a sideline to Guantanamo or Abu Grahib.

Diego Garcia is in a class of its own. Once this story gets out, there won't be an American alive who can go on shutting out the truth.

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guilty until proven innocent...what?
Posted by: undrgrndgirl on Jan 6, 2008 1:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"...in a country where the presumption of innocence is slowly being drained of all meaning."
slowly? i'd say it rapidly went down the drain and it began long before 9/11. the best example of this is the pervasive use of drug testing for employment, in schools, and in some places for public housing...9/11 and the patriot act have only made a presumption of guilt that much easier and acceptable...unless you are in the white house having committed impeachable offenses!

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Brought to you by the republicans
Posted by: Guitardedkev on Jan 6, 2008 8:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIiNOFJ1NU
and Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25wISP8-TVw
Part 1 is about a minute and a half long, part 2 is about 4 and a half minutes.
Worth the time!

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The meaning of liberty
Posted by: maxfactor on Jan 6, 2008 10:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Now I know what liberty is: You`re free to toture anybody...

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» RE: The meaning of liberty Posted by: macdon1
War Crimes
Posted by: JACKBP on Jan 6, 2008 12:56 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hope the Toxic Duo will be tried for war crimes.

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I've had to make up new cuss words to describe them.
Posted by: Longdream on Jan 6, 2008 1:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So I gave up.

Now I just ask one question: Give me one achievement of the Bush administration that benefited the American people at large. To hush the knee-jerk shitheads about 9/11 9/11 9/11, I'l qualify it by saying that if anyone died because of it, it doesn't count.

Take your time.

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Fools and madmen
Posted by: Cathyc on Jan 6, 2008 3:27 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The foolish take their lead from the mad - like the way infants rely on their parents for their guidance, regardless of how ignorant or stupid their parents may be.

The American masses are foolish beyond belief...

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» The word is Brown nosed! Posted by: common intelligence
The American Suicide Bomber
Posted by: AlexLawyer on Jan 6, 2008 5:55 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Now the neocons tell us we need to go into Pakistan, in the same way Kissinger and Nixon decided to attack Cambodia and Laos, in pursuit of the Islamabad Jihad Against the Enemies of God, or some such thing. As we have done in Iraq, we are creating the very demons we purport to slay. Al Qaeda did not exist there till we invaded, set one ethnic and religious group against another, and made ourselves hated. The more we turn up the heat and stir the pot, the more radical fundamentalism and anti-Americanism we cook up. When will we learn? George W. Bush has turned the US into a suicide bomber, self-destructing politically, legally, constitutionally and economically to exact revenge on people whose hatred of us is a product of our past interventions.

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» religion Posted by: Cathyc
Mister
Posted by: Spock on Jan 7, 2008 6:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Gee, this is remarkable. Imagine that! When, in 1977, the U.S. Government initiated its lawless assault by (IRS) attacking my family, breaking up my marriage, destroying my business and seizing all my money, it was only the first time for it all. Nine years later, when I had recovered, they did it all again, this time taking effective steps to assure that I would never again return to business or gainful employment and driving one of my sons to three attempts at suicide. I complained to everyone, including all the major media, three U.S. Senators and a Congressman, several newspapers and magazines, and the courts. When I had initiated covert operations against the govenment and forwarded evidence of dozens of felony crimes by the government to all the same persons, the same thing happened - nothing. In 1987, a U.S. District Court ruled in an FOI suit that to give me federal and state records "would irreparably damage the tax collection system of the United States." Hounded relentlessly by law enforcement sicced by the government, I went to the wilderness where I lived for years. Welcome to the real world, "America!"

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No One Will Be Held Accountable
Posted by: LeaderofMen on Jan 8, 2008 12:10 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
No one has been held accountable for ANYTHING so far.

Impeachment is off the table.

They run the show.

The power structures are already in place.

They operate like thugs - daily.

They have nearly a year left.

The invasion/bombing/attempted destruction of Iran is still on their table.

You do the math.

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» RE: No One Will Be Held Accountable Posted by: atheistcable
BUSH ON THE DARK SIDE
Posted by: geewhiz on Jan 13, 2008 2:22 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
ITS LUCKY THAT YOU WHO WRITES THIS HAVE NEVER HAD TO FIGHT IN BATTLE. TO STAY AT HOME IN COMFORT AND JUST TALK ABOUT HERESAY FROM OTHERS, BUT IF YOU WERE IN BATTLE, WE WOULD'NT BE HEREING THIS BULL FROM YOU. A EX BATTLE VET.

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