David Letterman:
There's a photograph of President Bush from the first debate and he's got some kind of lumpy-looking thing on the back of his coat. And rumors are flying that it's some kind of special radio receiver and that he's getting answers from someone backstage. And, wow, it's like he's back at Yale.
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is available for free download. Beware, though, as “The file is approximately 650 megabytes and should take about two to four hours to download through a cable modem or a fast DSL connection”
It's a catchy little country tune, Takin' My Country Back, but I don't expect to hear it on local radio somehow….
A Tiny Revolution: Uh Oh quotes Seymour Hersh speaking at Berkeley last Friday, October 8th:
I got a call last week from a soldier — it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.
It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary… It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit — we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody…
They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, “No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents.”
George W. Bush is responsible for this. Don't forget that. George Bush is reponsible for this. As much as the individuals who pulled the triggers, George W. Bush is responsible for this.
Boing Boing: Law enforcement memo of “imminent” terror attack?
It's can't-lose politically. Scare some marginal voters to vote for Bush, CYA if there is an attack, claim credit for stopping it if there is not.
Of course a climate of fear plays right into the terrorists' hands, but who knows, maybe they vote too…
Great news from Human Rights Watch! Your constitutional republic at work spreading the Rule of Law around the world!
U.S.: Detained al-Qaeda Suspects 'Disappeared' (Human Rights Watch, 12-10-2004): At least 11 al-Qaeda suspects have “disappeared” in U.S. custody, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. U.S. officials are holding the detainees in undisclosed locations, where some have reportedly been tortured.
The 46-page report, “The United States’ ‘Disappeared’: The CIA’s Long-Term ‘Ghost Detainees,’” describes how the Central Intelligence Agency is holding al-Qaeda suspects in “secret locations,” reportedly outside the United States, with no notification to their families, no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross or oversight of any sort of their treatment, and in some cases, no acknowledgement that they are even being held.
“‘Disappearances’ were a trademark abuse of Latin American military dictatorships in their ‘dirty war’ on alleged subversion,” said Reed Brody, special counsel with Human Rights Watch. “Now they have become a United States tactic in its conflict with al-Qaeda.”
Oh goodie, the US joins the proud company of the USSR and fascist latin dictatorships. We are so proud.
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