Category: Terrorism

Sensitive Guantanamo Bay Day to Day Gulag Manual Leaked

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The 238+ page document, “Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures”, dated March 2003, was leaked and the whole document (pdf) is now at available at wikileaks.org.

Among the revelations:

  • Detainees prohibited access (or possibly concealed, it is unclear) to the Red Cross in violation of US treaty obligations, and the word of George W. Bush and senior members of his cabinet.
  • Control of the availability toilet paper as a disciplinary tool. (WTF????)
  • Routine use of dogs in the compound soley for the purpose of intimidation.

Nice gulag you have there, Bushie.

Breaking News, John Negroponte is a Moron

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Here is a guy who takes our money, and as opposed to going after terrorists in the north, has spent it on gold plating his military machine to go after India in the south, but according to John Negroponte, he is indispensable.

The Pakistani military has spent the past 60 imagining the glory of der tag*, and Musharraf is very much a part of this dysfunctional and anti-Democratic culture.

Of course, the current alternative, Benazir Bhutto, is remarkably corrupt, even by the standards of Pakistani politics (Yes, I know, “corrupt even by the standards of Pakistani politics”, is hard to wrap one’s head around).

*The German Imperial Navy, in the days before World War I, constantly longed for der tag, the day, when they would confront the British Navy.

These Are Not Terrorists, They Everyone’s Stereotype of Trekkies Who Need to Get A Life

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Well, there has now been a plea in the Fort Dix “terrorism” case. It’s Agron Abdullahu, and he was charged with weapons violations, not a direct involvement in the planning or execution of the event.

The more I look at what various “home grown” terrorists appear to have been planning, the more that it is clear that hese guys are serious wannabes, and they remind me less of terrorists than they do of the pseudo trekkies who referred to episodes by number in that Saturday Night Live sketch with William Shatner.

Remember these guys? They decided that they wanted to attack a military installation, and settled on Fort Dix, because one of them knew the lay of the base from delivering pizzas there.

The FBI learned of the plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD..

Which are they more like, this guy, , or this Guy?

My money is on comic book guy.

You find the same thing with the “Seas of David” morons. You know, the ones who were “planning to bomb the Sears Tower”, but needed to get some groundwork out of the way, so they, like, you know, went down to the local 7-11 to find supporters, and combat with paintball.

Let’s be fair. While I have met some serious lamers at Science Fiction Conventions, and this is not limited to Trek, none of them are this lame. These guys make that 45 year old virgin arguing about continuity in Lost in Space look like Pierce Brosnan.

National Academy of Science Says GNEP Program Premature

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The NAS is calling for a move slow approach on the Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Program, which among other things, calls for civilian nuclear power to move wholesale into a Plutonium economy, with the US reprocessing spent fuel, and reactors to burn the extracted Plutonium.

Their arguments are not about the potential safety and terrorism issues of a Plutonium economy, but rather that this program is insufficiently mature, and that funds should go toward getting new, more conventional, commercial plants online in the US, so they are not anti-nuke by inclination.

To quote the NAS press release, “The research and development component of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a program that aims to reprocess spent nuclear fuel which could then be shared with partner countries, should not go forward at its current pace, says a new report from the National Research Council. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, of which GNEP is a part, should instead assign the highest priority to facilitating the startup of new commercial nuclear power plants, a program that is currently falling behind schedule due to funding gaps.”

What is going on here is that be is doing everything in its power to make sure that nuclear power plants are a fact on the ground before they leave office out of ideological fervor, not a realistic assessment of the technology.

Is the Pakistani State Failing???

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See the opening paragraph of the New York Times article on the recent political upheval.

The scenes of carnage in Pakistan this week conjured what one senior administration official on Friday called “the nightmare scenario” for President Bush’s last 15 months in office: Political meltdown in the one country where Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and nuclear weapons are all in play.

In Augues, I referred to Pakistan as an almost failed state. Significant portions of the country are not under government control, the place is lousy with automatic weapons, and there is a significant Islamist movement there.

Pakistan is not fully cooperating because it cannot. It would destabilize the already fragile country, and then its nuclear arsenal would be up for grabs.

Prosecutor of Anti-Terror Trial to Go on Trial Himself for Obstruction of Justice, Making False Declarations, and Conspiracy Charges

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The involves the trial of four people accused of being a terrorist “cell” in Detroit. Richard Convertino suppressed documents that would help the defense during discovery, and then lied about it.

It was so egregious that he was outed by his staff, and the convictions were overturned at the request of the Justice Department.

According to the prosecution, Convertino was looking at converting a high profile conviction into a leg up in a run for Congress.

It’s good that he, and former State Department investigator Harry Smith III, are being put on trial.

As much as the Bush Administration thinks that the law is not worth the trouble, it’s the only thing protectinb us against corrupt overzealous members of the state security apparatus.

War On Terror Means More Crime in US

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Bill Bratton, current LAPD chief, and the man who cleaned up New Yorek (not Guiliani), is saying that the federal government is abandoning its commitment to fighting crime in the United States and diverting those resources to the “Total War Against Terror“*.

“The federal government is a one-eyed Cyclops – it can only focus on one thing at a time,” said Mr Bratton, in an interview with the Financial Times. “We have to fight a two-front war on terrorism internationally and on crime at home. You cannot fight terrorism at the expense of 16,000 homicides a year.”

FWIW, that is 5 times the total deaths from 911.

He’s right.

*Check out the acronym.

What Jesse Wendel Said.

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Jesse Wendle of The Group News blog has this post on the Amry’s new “Pain Ray”. I read about it a while back, and filed it under, “Mildly interesting”, wait for a slow news day.

Boy, was I wrong. Jesse makes it clear what this is all about, and I, in my tech geekiness, missed the big picture:

This will be used to torture.

It isn’t up for debate. It isn’t open for question. No matter how many safeguards we put on their sale.

This will be used to torture. As the article goes on to say, quoting a goddamn Ph.D. biologist who specializes in how the brain perceives pain, “They are so obviously useful as torture instruments.“

….

There are worse things than dying. Being burned alive is one of them. Being burned alive over and over again and never being able to escape… Don’t talk to me about humane weapons which burn people without burning them till you’ve gone on a run with me and seen what teenager sisters look, feel, sound and smell like who’ve been burned to death but are still talking to each other because they just don’t fucking know they’re already dead.

This box is a torture device. It’s morally wrong and an abomination upon the face of the earth.

All emphasis is mine.

Huckabee Calls Out Bush, AND Compared Him To Musharraf

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Following his second place finish in the Iowa Republican Party extortion straw poll, Mike Huckabee is the top of the second tier Republican Presidential Candidates, and unlike Ron Paul, is considered a serious candidate by Republican power brokers and rank and file. The fact that he is now calling out Bush on his execution of the Total War Against Terror* is significant.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leveled some of the harshest criticisms of the Bush administration’s foreign policy yet from the GOP presidential field, saying it has mismanaged relations with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Laying out his foreign policy platform in Washington on Friday, Huckabee restated his support for continuing the war in Iraq. But the bulk of his speech was devoted to the United States’ and Bush’s shortcomings.

Huckabee said the U.S. is ignoring options besides armed conflict with Iran, has trusted the Saudis too much and has allowed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to go back on his commitment to allow American forces to root out terrorism within his borders.

“Just like Musharraf, since 9/11, the Bush administration has played both ends and the middle, assuring the American people that it’s doing everything it can to protect them, while tiptoeing around our supposed ally,” Huckabee said. “It’s been afraid of upsetting the apple cart, even though the cart contains poisoned apples destined for export to the United States.”

If his statements get any serious air time, it should boost both his name recognition and his poll numbers.

Bush is profoundly unpopular even with Republicans, and in the context of a multi candidate primary could very well give him a leg up.

Additionally, it’s tough to find anyone, except for the “very serious people” at places like the council for foreign relations, who does not realize that the source of 911 in particular, and terrorism in general is Saudi money and Saudi policies.

It should be interesting to see how this shapes up in the next few weeks.

*Check out the initials.

Patrick Leahy Cuts Admiral Mike McConnell a New One

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The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee lit into the Director of National Intelligence before his opening statement.

And well he should, McConnell is suggesting that oversight is aiding terrorists.

...Leahy pointed to a line in McConnell’s prepared statement suggesting that “some” do not appreciate the threat posed by al-Qaeda, and, visibly angry, warned him against accusing “any Senator on this panel” of playing fast and loose with national security.

And he called on McConnell to end his “irresponsible” repeated comments that debating changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will mean that “some Americans are going to die.”

New Haven Acknowledges That They Were Morons (Sort Of)

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Remember when I wrote about members of a 60+ year old running group being prosecuted under terrorism statutes for marking a trail? The local constabulary were talking about pressing charges for the “Hash House Runners”, a “Drinking group with a running problem”. For marking a running path with flour.

When the doctor who marked the path saw the commotion, he explained what it was, and offered to eat some of the flour, but these folks still kept freaking out, despite the fact that the FBI had sent out a notice about the “Hash House Runners” saying that they were not a problem some tome previous.

There has been a settlement, with the doctor and his sister doing some community service.

If I were them, I’d tell them to pound sand, and file suit against the city for malicious prosecution. They’ve run these races in Washington, DC without incident.

McCain Gets it About Rudy Guiliani

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When McCain Attacked Guiliani’s foreign policy and anti-terrorism experience in the Republican debates, he got it.

Seeing Rudy as an expert in counter-terrism is like seeing the captain pf the Titanic as an expert on ice bergs.

Truth be told, the real source of Republican voters affection for “Hizzoner” is not his anti-terror cred. It is his reputation as someone who keeps non-white people in their place.

The Louima and Diallo affairs are something that appeals to core Republican voters.

Bush and His Evil Minions™ Lust for Another Terror Attack

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It used to be that reading the New York Times was not like reading HP Lovecraft.

Now, they make the man who is arguably the greatest horror writer of the 20th century (at least the first half) look like a piker, as in this New York Times magazine article. You should read it for yourself, but here are the high (low?) points in this article about former Bush administration official and major right wing legal scholar Jack Goldsmith, and his new book The Terror Presidency.:

  • That the administration unecessarily took a broad “go it alone” view toward executive power.
  • Legal decisions were not made at DoJ, but by the White House Council (Gonzalez), and the general counsel of the Defense Department.
  • These policies, and the policy making process were so out of line that it honked off John Ashcroft.
  • In response to a fairly straightforward legal opinion, Goldsmith’s assisistant said, “They’re going to be really mad. They’re not going to understand our decision. They’ve never been told no.”
  • In response to this decision, David Addington, then Vice President Cheney’s legal adviser and now his chief of staff “You cannot question his decision“.
  • Addington later confronted him and said, “If you rule that waythe blood of the hundred thousand people who die in the next attack will be on your hands.” (Have I mentioned that these people are really paranoid nuts?)
  • He felt compelled to resign immediately after issuing a more restrictive interrogation policy, “So he made a strategic decision: on the same day that he withdrew the opinion, he submitted his resignation, effectively forcing the administration to choose between accepting his decision and letting him leave quietly, or rejecting it and turning his resignation into a big news story.”
  • Goldsmith recalls that Addington (and Addington does not fart without getting Cheney’s approval) saying, “We’re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court“. They really want another attack.
  • That the badgering of Ashcroft in the hospital was so bad that his wife stuck her tongue at them. (Yes, I know that it sounds mild, but I doubt that she would use profanity if threatened with death)

These folks are completely divorced from reality.

Hat tip to Glenn Greenwald for finding this article.

Osama Has Already Defeated Us.

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So, let me get this straight, a group of beer swilling runners are marking a trail for a run, and it gets treated as a possible terrorist attack?

If the goal of terrorism is to create terror and panic, Osama bin Laden has already defeated us.

Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.

The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.

New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony.
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The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a “drinking club with a running problem.”

We are a bunch of scared rabbits, aren’t we?