Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

A Publicly Displayable Level of Venom

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Scrivener's Error has had a little redesign and now is a little easier on the eye than it used to be; the content remains great. Today's is especially worth your while, so I'm going to take the liberty of quoting it in full:

Phil Carter, over at Intel Dump, has penned a remarkably even-tempered (if ultimately condemning) response to the whitewash over command responsibility at Abu Gh'raib. In his first update, he concludes:

Despite these generals' findings, none of the officers responsible for facilitating these abuses will face criminal charges. Or, put another way, the Army IG has wholly disregarded the record evidence before him to arrive at an arbitrary and capricious decision that the senior Army leaders involved should face no legal consequences for their actions. What kind of message does that send to our junior military leaders? What kind of message does that send to the world?

This is a lot more generous than I would have been. It's taken me three days to keep the venom in this message to a publicly displayable level.

Continue reading →

Posted in Torture | 1 Comment

It’s Official: Grounds for Iraq War Were Imaginary

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The CIA has at last admitted the obvious: there never were WMDs in Iraq:

In his final word, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has “gone as far as feasible” and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion

Contrast to this in June 2003:

Bush confident of finding banned Iraqi weapons: President hits back at critics on WMD question. President Bush dismissed what he called “revisionist history” about the war in Iraq on Tuesday, and his spokesman said the president is still confident a Pentagon-led search will find Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction.

How many soldiers and civilians died in pursuit of this mirage?

Update: Here's a fuller account of the Iraq Survey Group's final report and a link to the GPO's official edition of the Comprehensive Revised Report with Addendums on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (Duelfer Report).

Posted in Iraq | 22 Comments

Happy Memories of Hitler Youth

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Eric Muller translates a Das Bild article with elderly Germans' reminiscences about their happy days in the Hitler Youth. It's stunning stuff, and none more than this piece of work:

I didn't know anybody back then who was against it. Whoever was against it, like an uncle of mine, was immediately arrested.

But this one comes close:

There was absolutely no discrimination among the young people who were members of the Hitler Youth and the anti-aircraft helpers.

Posted in Politics: International | 1 Comment

Of Victors and Spoils

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about this story I noted yesterday that the Bush Administration is removing U.S. delegates from the Inter-American Telephone Commission (IATC) because they gave money to John Kerry in last year's election.

Let's presume that the only way the Bush administration figured out who the Kerry donors were is by looking at the public records of the Federal Election Commission. And let's recall that the Bush administration has systematically worked to remove unions and other job protections from the federal civil service. Are we moving to a system in which administrations will be able to police loyalty with heightened efficiency? Was this effect contemplated by campaign finance reform? Should we start allowing anonymous contributions, at least up to a point?

Note also that it's only a short step from firing Kerry supporters to only allowing Bush donors.

There are many Supreme Court decisions suggesting that this sort of extortion would not be legal in the civil service. (Perhaps, arguably, diplomatic jobs are slightly different in that although extortion is out, rewarding paying friends has long been traditional.) There is also a law that makes it a serious crime to promise anyone a government job in exchange for a campaign contribution. But the workaround is obvious: just let it be known in a general but visible and effective manner that we reward our friends and punish our enemies. Don't make any specific promises or threats, just act in accordance after the election.

So that's all pretty bad, another drip in the erosion of half-decent government as we knew it.

Or is it? There reasons after all why we would want an elected official to appoint like-minded assistants. At least when the official actually got a majority of the votes actually cast, promotion of the like-minded promotes democratic control of the bureaucracy. And that, political theory tells us, should be a good thing.

What bugs me is that the IATC is a technical standards body. We'd probably like our delegates there to be the engineers and business people who best understand the technologies. Reality-based, if you'll excuse the term.

Three years, 38 weeks, 3 days and a bit more, to go.

Posted in Politics: US | 2 Comments

Link-o-Rama

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The “K Street Project” spreads to technical standard-making: Any Kerry Supporters On The Line? The Bush Administration punishes some Democrat backers. I guess electrons have party affiliations now.

All Bolton, All The Time

And, just for fun, an amazing Oops! (via Ann Bartow).

Posted in Politics: US | 2 Comments

YATA: US Taking Hostages!?!

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

YATA: Allegedly, the US takes hostages, which is a no-brainer violation of the Geneva convention, and basic decency. (Via Jim Henley.)

I should note, however, that while I think highly of Henley, I’m unfamiliar with the news organization that he linked to and which propagated this report.

Posted in Torture | 3 Comments