Politics As Usual

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
So, you personally won't be satisifed until we find the original copy of the Treaty of Baquaba, the photo of the grinning Saddam and OBL taken at the signing, and the gold plated commemorative pen.

Interesting you put it that way.

I'm coming to the conclusion that unless discovered in a Nixonesque tableau, with Bush inside the Oval personally authorizing (say) the killing of 30 or so Iraqi detainees in prisons, that none of the problems plaguing the Administration will stick to this man.

Here's a new development of which I'm particularly fond, reported by the AP:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended his decision to hold a prisoner captured in Iraq without notifying international authorities, saying it was at the request of CIA Director George J. Tenet and the detainee was treated humanely.

``He wasn't lost in the system,'' Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. ``There is no question at all ... that he received humane treatment.''

The terror suspect has been held since October without being given an identification number and without the International Committee of the Red Cross being notified, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Both conditions violate the Geneva Accords on treatment of prisoners of war.

Rumsfeld described him as an Iraqi who was a high-ranking member of Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic group believed to have orchestrated some of the bombings and guerrilla warfare in Iraq.

I so look forward to the Administration's explanation as to why the withholding of this detainee's name, done primarily TO KEEP HIS IDENTITY UNKNOWN FROM THE ICRC SO THAT THEY COULD NOT MONITOR HIS TREATMENT, was necessary. Presumably, the ICRC can join the Administration's growing list of pussies who simply don't understand the requirements of the War on (The Noun of) Terror.

Certainly, it may be more difficult to paint the International Committee of the Red Cross as a lying, wimpy, corrupt organization such as the UN, which is therefore deserving of our scorn and disdain, but I have faith in the capabilities of the Bush Administration to find the right paint and brush. After all, if the rest of the countries in the world can't understand that the ICRC can't be trusted, then fuck 'em, right?

But of course, sayeth Hank, Club, et al, this guy was a particularly important terrorist shithead! Surely we can keep this guy away from prying eyes and (as Rumsfeld assures us) "humanely treat" him until he talks!

Well, yes, I'm sure that he's a corner case, and that his singular exception from the Administration's "No Torture" Rule* is justifiable because of his special role withing the terrorist fuckhead organization. Except that apparently there are OVER A DOZEN UNDISCLOSED PRISONS THAT THE US IS MAINTAINING, SO THAT THE ICRC CAN'T SEE THEM. WHAT THE FUCK IS OUR ADMINISTRATION THINKING?

The Pentagon's admission came a day before a human rights group released a report accusing the United States of keeping an unknown number of terrorist suspects in secret lockups around the world.

A report from New York-based Human Rights First said the Bush administration was violating U.S. and international law by refusing to notify all detainees' families or give names, numbers and locations of all terror war prisoners to the Red Cross.

None of that was done in the Iraqi detainee's case, Whitman said.

Keeping secret prisoners creates conditions for abuses such as the humiliations and beatings suffered by some Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the group argues.

``The official secrecy surrounding U.S. practices has made conditions ripe for illegality and abuse,'' said the report from Human Rights First, formerly called the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

The group said the United States should immediately allow Red Cross access to all terror war detainees, notify the prisoners' families and announce the number and location of such prisoners.

Thank GOD that all of this is due to the misadventures of some untrained, unsupervised National Guard punks. I hope they throw the book at Pvt. Englund.

Gattigap

*Such as it is. Since the GOP has blocked any subpoenas to a White House that told Congress to go fuck themselves over disclosing torture memos, we'll apparently be relying on the motivated public servants in the West Wing to release them when it suits them. I, for one, am not holding my breath.