Category: Terrorism

Padilla Sentenced to 17 Years

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The prosecution asked for life, and for the U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to ignore the fact that he was tortured for 3½ years, but the judge disagreed, and further disagreed about the severity of the offense

“There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” Cooke said. “There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government.”

…

In arriving at Padilla’s sentence, Cooke said she took into account the harsh, isolated conditions he faced during his time in a brig as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest. Defense lawyers claim he was tortured by the military, but U.S. officials denied that and Cooke never used the word torture.

Sentencing guidelines had suggested a range of between 30 years and life for all three, but Cooke used her discretion to go below even the minimum. Besides Padilla’s sentence, Hassoun got 15 years and eight months and Jayyousi 12 years and eight months.

It’s nice to see the prosecutors getting slapped down, at least a little over torture.

Who Bombed the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center (AMIA,) In 1994

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It certainly does paint the picture of an incompetently run investigation, with conclusions being driven by political believs, rather than the facts, which is a characteristic of Bush and His Evil Minions™.

That being said, that the finger being pointed at Iran significantly began with the Clinton administration, and the inclination to blame Iran for anything bad happening in the world dates to the late 1970s, so there is a bureaucratic imperative at work here in both the US intelligence services, and the State Department.

Gareth Porter’s article is interesting, but it raises more questions than it answers.

Militants Cultivated By Pakistani ISI Now Out of Control

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The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, has for some time cultivated networks of militants, with the idea of being to control them.

Well, it appears now that these militants are saying, “So long and thanks for all the fish.”

As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.

The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan. American officials have begun to weigh more robust covert operations to go after Al Qaeda in the lawless border areas because they are so concerned that the Pakistani government is unable to do so.

This was absolutely forseeable. It was a marriage of convenience on both sides.

In a very real way, it mirrors the US relationship with Pakistan….And the House of Saud….And the sh^%tty little oil monarchies all across the Gulf….etc.

Bob Gates: Moron

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I guess that Robert Gates is just Don Rumsfeld without the charisma.

He’s criticising NATO forces for not doing a proper job in Afghanistan.

Of course, he would be a bit more convincing if:

  • The US had not allowed Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar get away because they were too timid about potential US casualties.
  • Bush and His Evil Minions™ hadn’t simply dropped a not-yet pacified south to go after Saddam, who had nothing to do with 911.
  • If US tactics in the south weren’t so violent and indiscriminate (particularly the bomb happy USAF), that the British weren’t asking US special forces to get the hell out.
  • If US aid policies in Afghanistan weren’t primarily for the benefit of US contractors who were Republican donors.
  • If the US wasn’t juxtaposing this incompetence in delivering aid with an aggressive anti-opium program that leaves Afghan farmers with a choice between aiding the Taliban or starving.
  • The US wasn’t currently limiting its operations in the east, where Taliban activity is minimal.
  • If the US were not committing a smaller proportion of its military to Afghanistan than the NATO allies.

Is there a single competent Republican party Apparatchik in this entire nation?

Musharraf Fingerprints Increasingly Appear on Bhutto Assassination

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First, the Musharraf govenrment is rejecting a U.N. inquiry, on the basis that “No foreign government was involved”, though they have already fingered al Queida, a group of foreign terrorists based, at least in part in Afghanistan, and definitely supported by a foreign group, the Taliban.

Bag News Notes also has an interesting analysis, where they lay the blame at the feet of Condoleeza Rice, who thought that another “election”, like those in Iraq, would show democracy on the march in Pakistan, but then she never followed up, and left Bhutto unprotected.

TSA Detains 5 Year Old

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Good for them. How do you know that this kid wasn’t a a Jihadist with a glandular condition?

Seriously though, this does no one any good:

When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dillinger hadn’t passed anything dangerous weapons or materials to his mother when she hugged him.

Hack0rz to Penetrate 787 Systems in flight

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Well, it appears that one of Boeing’s innovations with the 787 is the ability to wirelessly access maintenance and control systems, and the FAA is demanding that there be more security on these systems.

The entire world of aviation is increasingly looking like the Pilot episode of
The Lone Gunman an X-Files spin off, in which the forces of fascism attempt to take over the computer systems of an airliner and fly it into the Twin Towers.

Heck, the entire world is beginning to seem like an episode of The Lone Gunman.

Heads of the 911 Commission Claim That the CIA Deliberately Obstructed Their Investigation

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The money quote is, “As a legal matter, it is not up to us to examine the C.I.A.’s failure to disclose the existence of these tapes. That is for others. What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.

Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton have just made a specific allegation of a crime, obstructing a federal investigation.

There are people in the Bush Administration, and among the professional staff in the intelligence agencies, who

Even New Labour Sick of Anti-Terror Laws

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It looks like Gordon Brown is looking at a revolt among his own party regarding his proposal to extend the period of detention without charge in terrorism cases from 28 days to 42 days.

It probably does not help that Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Head of the CPS and Director of Public Prosecutions, in addition to, “the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith and the former Lord chancellor Lord Falconer.”

What I don’t get about the current politics in Britain is how the other parties are not exploiting the current situation.

Brown is floundering, Blair was remarkably unpopular, and that was before his conversion to Catholicism, which from what I’ve read, both historical and current stories, is a very big negative to the British public.

Why the Tories or Lib-Dems are unable to pick up significant seats in these circumstances is completely beyond me.

My Thoughts on the Bhutto Assassination

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First, it’s clear that even by the standards of Pakistani politics, she was highly corrupt, as mind boggling as this characterization was.

This is something that is frequently ignored, as the westerners that she met with were dealing with someone who went to Harvard/Radcliffe and then Oxford. She was well spoken, and knew how to make her point in terms that were familiar to the western officials whom she studiously cultivated.

In this way, she was very similar to Ahmed Chalabi, whose support from US officials, despite a history of criminal, dishonest, and corrupt dealings, managed to convince US figures who were profoundly ignorant of that part of the world to support his interests.

That they both went to college at prestigious western schools, (Chalabi received his BS from MIT, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago) is not an inconsequential part of this equation. It taught both of them how to communicate their interests in a very fluent way with their American counterparts.

That being said, it is clear that Bhutto was far more interested in actually governing and implementing policies, as opposed to Chalabi’s rather more venal interests.

Additionally, as the head of a the only major opposition party was assassinated yesterday, and with the elections less than two weeks away, it’s clear that the elections will not mean anything.

All that they will do is to serve as a rubber stamp of Pervez Musharraf’s power, as the only other potential rival to power, Nawaz Sharif, has not been allowed stand for election.

As to Mushaffaf, he is largely the product of, and completely beholden to, the Pakistani military establishment (which includes Pakistani intelligence services) which has little or no interest in pursuing the American anti-terrorism or anti Taliban agenda.

The Pakistani military’s culture resembles to a very large degree that of the German Imperial Navy pre World War I. They are focused on “der tag”*, the day, i.e. the eventual large scale conflict with India much in the same way that the German fleet focused on an eventual showdown with their British counterparts.

As a result, both organizations had limited effectiveness to the task at hand.

As such, it is no surprise that very little of the military aid that the US has sent to Pakistan has gone towards fighting the Taliban or terrorism, but has instead been directed toward India.

As to who is directly responsible for the assassination, I do not know, and neither does anyone else writing about it, though I lean toward various Pakistani warlords in the generally lawless border regions who were directly threatened by Bhutto’s policies.

However, it is clear that Musharraf deliberately impaired the security arrangements for Bhutto, probably in an effort to hamstring her ability to campaign, and as such he does bear some direct responsibility for her death.

I don’t see any resolution of this situation as being favorable to the United States, a quick perusal of Sharif’s record shows him having amended the constitution to make removal of a prime minister nearly impossible, and considering the fact that Pakistan has somewhere between 30 and 100 nuclear weapons, and the possibilities for the average Pakistani citizen are even worse.

There is a more general lesson to be learned though, and that is that the US has for a very long time generally cast about for “our man” in various places in the world of interest, rather than looking at issues of governance and process, and the results when this individual falls up short, as has happened when the US withdrew to some degree from Musharraf and placed its chips on Bhutto, have almost always been disastrous.

*At official events banquets, the German Navy always had a toast to “der tag”, translated as “the day”, referring to the eventual clash of fleets.

Lamo Terrorists Jurors Deadlock in 6 of 7 Defendants | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

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And they acquitted number seven.

This case has been a ginned up clusterf%$# from the beginning. Someone found a group of nutbags, and either (the FBI or Prosecutors) thought that a terrorism bust would make their careers, or they (paid informants) thought that they were dumb enough to unknowingly play along with them so that they could stay on the Department of Justice gravy train.

These guys are too whacked out and too stupid to organize a PTA meeting, much less engage in terrorism. This is precisely the sort of manufactred bullsh&$ that seems to happen every time that Bush and His Evil Minions&trade need something to distract from the bad news coming out of the White House.

Pentagon Pushing Recognition of Somaliland

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Some background:

Somaliland was a British colony, and handed off to Somalia, an Italian one, when they were both granted independence in 1960.

Follow the collapse of the Somali government, they declared independence, and they have created a relatively stable government.

There are no nations which have recognized them, largely because the African Union refuses to, because they have a policy of recognizing only former colonial political boundaries*.

While Somaliland was a separate colony, the AU members, concerned about their own borders, does not want a separate nation state to be founded out of Somalia.

Well, the Pentagon is concerned about instability in this region, and is now lobbying to have Somaliland recognized.

I tend to agree for a number of reasons:

  • It meshes with the facts on the ground.
  • That it could lead to rearrangement of borders, leading to more viable and prosperous African nations in the long run.
    • I do understand that, in the short term, that secessionist movements would cause a lot of pain.
  • That a policy of slicing stable portions of Somalia away, and slowly tightening the ring around the unstable portions, seems like the only way for stability to ever be restored there.

*Causing untold amounts of strife and misery, as the colonial boundaries cut across ethnic and sectarian lines in a completely arbitrary manner.

Outsourcing Terrorism, Yet AGAIN

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We lost bin Laden when we outsourced combat to Afghan tribes, and now we are proposing outsourcing to Pakistani Tribes.

A new and classified American military proposal outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against an expanding militancy, American military officials said.

If adopted, the proposal would join elements of a shift in strategy that would also be likely to expand the presence of American military trainers in Pakistan, directly finance a separate tribal paramilitary force that until now has proved largely ineffective and pay militias that agreed to fight Al Qaeda and foreign extremists, officials said. The United States now has only about 50 troops in Pakistan, a Pentagon spokesman said, a force that could grow by dozens under the new approach.

Let me get this straight. In a nuclear armed nation that is teetering on the brink of anarchy or revolution, somehow it’s a good idea to arm and train yet another group of people who will be usurping the most essential monopoly of the state, organized violence.

Impeach Dick Cheney today. Impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.