September 29, 2004

• I'm so mad I'm considering asking Americans I know to write letters!!! I spent a few days trying to collect signatures for a public Arar inquiry early this year. Man oh man. You can spend hours and hours just to get ten names. Is 3:00pm too early to start drinking?
• Our national shame.
• I'll just add this to the list....oops, looks like I need to start a new page.
• My outrage-o-meter broke when Bill Graham of all people tried to sell us the missile defence scheme.
• Bill Graham the former rock promoter? Or the God promoter?
• polychrome your thread has been preempted by Sully or his thread haas been preempted by yours. execllent post, tho.
• Thanks PatB One of the problems I had with this post is that the identity of the person who signed the order, extraditing Arar and (by implication) blessing his subsequent torture with the OK of the US government is known. So, mention, or not mention, that is the question? I didn't (and won't) and I'm glad, but still, it niggles. It's very similar to those groups who go around outing convicted paedophiles in the neighbourhood they live in. I think it's wrong, but I can understand the impulse.
• i thought "extraordinary rendition" was a really good karaoke performance
• PatB: Bill Graham, formerly the Foreign Minister, currently the Defence Minister. He's a Liberal, whose riding contains Toronto's gay village. Graham used to be among the most popular and progressive Liberal MPs. Even the far-left (or true-left, whatev) NDP voters had few bones to pick with him. That is, until he got the Defence portfolio.
• USA! USA!
• The Preznit does not support this initiative, and I am shocked that anyone would suggest otherwise. Shocked, I say!
• Article in The New Yorker. This has been going on for a while. discussion over at Obsidian Wings.
• Oh, joy.

  A senior lawyer for the U.S. government has told a judge hearing a lawsuit over Maher Arar's deportation to Syria that foreign citizens passing through American airports have almost no rights. Mason said the interpretation means travellers can be detained without charge, denied the right to consult a lawyer, and even refused necessities such as food and sleep.

• *hangs head in shame for her country
• *joins GramMa, wipes nose with kitten*
• Maher who?
• Canada may be complicit too
• McClellan is a poop-smoking goat blower.
• The Torturers Win
• Well fuck. Although I might agree that as a non-citizen he can't sue under that law, I wonder what he could have sued for.
• Memos Detail 74 CIA Landings in Canada
• Eliminating all checks against lawbreaking
• We have met the enemy, and he is us. -- Walt Kelly
• Vanished From the Face of the Earth
• CIA 'torture' lawsuit thrown out
• "The judge did not rule on the truth of the allegations, but said letting the case proceed might endanger security." Whaaaa??!
• FUCK!!
• Quick, somebody give me a good reason why I should not defect to North Korea?
• Er...the winters are really cold?
• Haircuts? Batshit insane head of state?
• Well, I grew up in artic-like conditions ---> that's not gonna defer me. While I'm not able to sport a buffont myself, I'm quite fond of Kim Jong-mentally-ill's lofty whips of hair. Meh, Bush is just as insane in my book. I'm out the door...
• Ah but Bush, being a staunch Christian, has the Almighty on his side? Crusades or Spanish inquisition anyone?
• sugarmilktea, please don't leave. We took a secret ballot and it was overwhelmingly in favor of preferring that you stay, and I have a sneaking suspicion that actual, permanent, demonstrably malevolent regimes are far less superior to our very temporary, rather lackluster (malevolently-speaking) regime than they initially seem.
• ) to Fes for talking me down. The voice of reason prevails yet again!
• Fes? The voice of reason? Oh, you're comparing him to Bush. Carry on!
• Now, now. Banana daquiris all around.
• Hey! Was that a shot? It sounded like a shot!
• Three Orange Whips!
• Secret Guarding
• [from homunculus' link above]: More and more, it [the state secrets privilege] is invoked not in response to run-of-the-mill government negligence cases but in response to allegations of criminal conduct on the part of the government. Great read. Thanks for the link. And that was precisely what has been heavy on my mind of late. What's to stop the government from engaging in any numerous forms of illegal activity? Fer crissake, pass me some of those orange whips pete!!
• Report: RCMP Botched Arar Investigation
• Scooped again! @#$%! Yeah that's a heart-warming story. US to Arar, "Sucks to be you, dude". US surprised to discover itself bouncing moral authority checks.
• Entire citizenry under observation (check) Rigged election process (check) No paper trail to counteract rigged election (check) Fear mongering (check) Blatant theological undertones (check) Blatant racist undertones (check) Securing of non-white borders (check) Media intimidation (check) Supplying illegal weapons to target civilian populations (check) Giving "elected" officials Carte Blanche to do any of the above (check) Toppling of soverign nations (check) Inside dealings with corporations directly affiliated to the administration (check) Torture (check) Declaring manifest destiny (?) Declaring Marshall Law (?) Jailing all dissenters (?) Financing Christian Militias (?) Oh what the future will bring. I have a question. Why is torture being discussed right now? Why are we in a country where this discussion is on the table. WTF happened. WTF happens if another neo-con gets elected? I will tell you right now the Christian fundamentalists are already in high gear to take this next election. They want it so bad they can taste it, and if you ask them about any of the things I listed they would completely endorse all of them.
• Justice Dept. Amends Remark on Torture Case
• Wow SA chimes in.
• Four years after he was detained as a suspected terrorist, Maher Arar's name has finally been cleared
• .
• What will you do when you hear a knock on the door at midnight?
• Don't be so paranoid. It's probably just the SWAT team misreading a warrant. No worries.
• Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
• Aghh! That is some scary shit, homunculus! I am now way more frightened of the Bush administration than I ever was by any Arab terrorist group.
• I am now way more frightened of the Bush administration than I ever was by any Arab terrorist group.
• U.S. Using Sting Tactics in Great Britian
• A Symbol of "Extraordinary Rendition" Returns to the U.S.
• Conservative British MP in U.S. to Challenge Extraordinary Rendition; 3,000 Published Flight Logs Expose New CIA Rendition Activities
• . . . there was a flight from Libya to Guantanamo just at the time when he said that this had happened, so, in other words, suggesting it’s true, that they actually flew interrogators from Libya to take part in interrogations in Guantanamo.
• Sen. Leahy Slams Gonzalez Over Torture
• Leahy: "We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held and he'd be investigated. We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured." *BAM!*
• I'm gonna watch that a few more times. That kicked ass. Except for the talking heads on Wolf Blitzer's Comedy and Variety Hour. They weren't even that funny. But dang Senator Leahy put the pop on Pac Man! Er, I mean Al-Gonzo the Torture Guy.
• US, Canada Clash over Former Detainee
• Germany orders 13 suspected CIA agents arrested on suspicion of abduction and grievous bodily harm.
• From Texas cell, Canadian, 9, pleads for help: Family in limbo after unscheduled stop in Puerto Rico
• For &$#!! sake! I click one link on MoFi today, and it had to be this one. I've never been on any anti-depressants, homunculus, but you're about to take me down that road. First, the boy who died from the complications resulting from a tooth-infection... And now this story. What's wrong with people? *more tears*
• I think homunculus is indirectly resposible for all of our personal problems. I think a class action lawsuit is in order.
• Shit, I'm sorry sugarmilktea. It depressed the hell out of me too.
• Seriously, it makes me want to drive to Texas and rattle heads (not that they're the problem - as they're probably just following orders...). No wonder there are people in this world that are willing to sacrifice their own life at the attempted destruction of the American machine. Here's a case of a family that should be supported and assisted - not incarcerated and destroyed. Oh, but it's OK since the nine year-old boy is NOT REALLY a Canadian. His parents are Iranian, so, it's a free pass to chuck 'em into the grinder. Shit like this pisses me off [as it should, as I have a son who has a different nationality than his mothers]. If I were that boy, I would be swearing my life on getting revenge just about now... /rant No need to apologize, homunculus!
• Rep. Rohrabacher: ‘I Hope It’s Your Families That Suffer’ From A Terrorist Attack
• Let me guess...Christian Right!
• Colbert Explains Why We Need To Detain and Torture Some Innocent People
• Yah think he's going to hell? Hope so.
• Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) Californiiiiaaaaaaa!! Get in here!
• ACLU Sues Boeing Subsidiary for Participation in CIA Kidnapping and Torture Flights
• The Black Sites: A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.
• In a rebuke of President Bush, the American Psychological Association has resolved to condemn brutal CIA and military interrogations.
• Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal. SCOTUS says the "state secrets privilege" makes it okay for the United States to kidnap German citizens in Macedonia and (allegedly) torture them in Afghanistan. WTF, USA?
• Wait, so you think the U.S. can be wrong??
• Well, clearly not within its own terms of reference. It would be nice if it could restrict its infallibility to operations within its own borders, however.
• It would be nice if we could close the borders on Washington, DC and bomb the heck out of it.
• This piece has been submitted by ACLU attorney Steven Watt on behalf of the brother of Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed is a victim of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program who is currently being detained at Guantánamo Bay. His brother chooses not to be identified by name. Watt represents Mohamed and four other rendition victims in a case against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., which the ACLU charges provided logistical support to flights used in the government's rendition program.
• In May 2004, Binyam was allowed outside for five minutes -- his first glimpse of sunshine in two years. It's hard to imagine this as fantasy, let alone reality. And yet, I have no reason not to believe it as factual... kinda makes me stop dead in my tracks.
• I'm ashamed.
• Frontline: Extraordinary Rendition
• Rendition Victim Tries Again
• US says it has right to kidnap British citizens
• So, I can nab me some quid with the support of my gummint? Kool!
• Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites": A Yemeni man never charged by the U.S. details 19 months of brutality and psychological torture -- the first in-depth, first-person account from inside the secret U.S. prisons.
• ... Hard to comment on that. Horrific, and unfathomable.
• In the sixties and seventies I was proud of the advances my country had made. Now I wonder where all that has gone. We have no moral leg to stand on.
• Control sought on military lawyers: Bush wants power over promotions
• @#$#%%$%*&^*&(*)(*!!!!!!
• Please, God. All I want for Christmas is for you to strike that asshole dead as a post. If not for me, for the rest of the country. PLEASE!
• Disappeared Into Secret Pakistani and US Prisons
• Maher Arar loses ‘last hope’ in U.S. court ruling The U.S. wins the right to abduct innocent people with impunity
• Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes
• Can Obama Say He's Sorry?