Politics: J'accuse!

[Replaced_Texan]

Turns out that there wasn't a lawyer onsite at Abu Ghraib, and there was a ready, willing, experienced volunteer with the appropriate political viewpoints who volunteered.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...awyer_rejected

Pentagon Rejected Lawyer to Oversee Prison

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Pentagon (news - web sites) officials rejected an Army plan last year to send an experienced military lawyer — who is also a Republican member of Congress — to help oversee the unit blamed for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib complex outside Baghdad.


________________________

I agree with whatever pundit suggested that we move all prisoners out of there and burn that damned building to the ground.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Not Me
Not a silver lining at all, but it does put things into perspective.

Let's see, US personnel put naked men in pyramids and put panties on their heads. Iraqis fuck young Iraqi boys in the ass against their will.

Let us also not forget what atrocities Iraqis perpetrated on other Iraqi's under SH's rule.

Perspective, gatti, perspective.

I'm surprised that you missed the gender angle -- U.S. soldiers were "having sex" with an Iraqi woman prisoner, but the young boys were "raped." The woman wasn't "raped" too?

eta: stp

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Reading Max Weber and Black Hawk Down, Brad DeLong concludes that "an unclear chain of command and an unclear mission is a recipe for a ratf*ck." Word.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
the thing is said...

Prof. Hank,

AotD.

G

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Not Me

• WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush strongly backed Donald Rumsfeld on Monday and said the nation owed him a debt of gratitude, countering calls by some Democrats for the defense secretary to resign over his handling of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
  
  After a meeting with Rumsfeld, military leaders and other top administration officials at the Pentagon, Bush told Rumsfeld, "Thank you for your leadership. You are courageously leading our nation in the war against terror."
  
  "You're doing a superb job. You're a strong secretary of defense and our nation owes you a debt of gratitude," Bush said.

Captain: Now, Mr. Navigator, we're this far off-course. How great a distance in reality does this represent?

Navigator: Oh... seven million miles, Sir?

Captain: Seven mill-- You're not a very good navigator, are you?

Navigator: No, Sir!

Captain: How were you hired, again?

Navigator: [takes off hat revealing very nice hair] You liked my hair, Sir.


http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcri...e/captain.html

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Captain: Now, Mr. Navigator, we're this far off-course. How great a distance in reality does this represent?

Navigator: Oh... seven million miles, Sir?

Captain: Seven mill-- You're not a very good navigator, are you?

Navigator: No, Sir!

Captain: How were you hired, again?

Navigator: [takes off hat revealing very nice hair] You liked my hair, Sir.


http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcri...e/captain.html

Shapey, the Politics board is intended for serious discourse only. We all find you amusing but these "joke" posts are probably best posted on fashion. We like to discuss geopolitical economics, and of course blogger sentiments that Ty may post. No offense hyuwihtst.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
That, and I have the smallest burning hope that the Gilligan posts bring a smile to at least one face, somewhere.

I feel that way about my implants.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Shapey, the Politics board is intended for serious discourse only. We all find you amusing but these "joke" posts are probably best posted on fashion. We like to discuss geopolitical economics, and of course blogger sentiments that Ty may post. No offense hyuwihtst.

Apologies. The part about Rumsfeld doing a "superb job" threw me.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Apologies. The part about Rumsfeld doing a "superb job" threw me.

Name a member of the Bush staff that has performed better.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
We like to discuss geopolitical economics, and of course blogger sentiments that Ty may post. No offense hyuwihtst.

Does it count as a "blogger sentiment" if it's the sentiment of Our Brave Fighting Men And Women, via a liberal European newspaper, via Joshua Micah Marshall?

British special ops guys say Abu Ghraib sex abuse shows signs of being a misapplied training technique called "R2I" used by Special Ops to prepare elite forces for potential for sexual torment after capture.

• The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources.
  
  ***
  
  "The crucial difference from Iraq is that frontline soldiers who are made to experience R2I techniques themselves develop empathy. They realise the suffering they are causing. But people who haven't undergone this don't realise what they are doing to people. It's a shambles in Iraq".
  
  The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops.
  
  "The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".

Thank you, Mr. President. Link to Guardian article, in case you're allergic to Marshall.

[ltl/fb]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) -- Hollywood lobbyists will be busy this week as lawmakers examine smoking on film . . .

The entertainment industry has been under considerable pressure to rein in indecent broadcasts on TV and radio, and now may face the same criticism for depictions of smoking.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, pushed for the hearing [in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday] after several recent meetings between anti-smoking advocates and entertainment industry executives.

Hollywood's top lobbyist, Jack Valenti, is scheduled to testify along with LeVar Burton, co-chair of the Directors Guild of America's social responsibility task force, Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and Stan Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. Glantz is one of Hollywood's leading social critics who pushes for R ratings for movies in which the actors light up.

While Motion Picture Assn. of America chief Valenti has worked to get the anti-smoking message out, his trade group says it's a filmmaker's right to have the characters smoke or not.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) -- Hollywood lobbyists will be busy this week as lawmakers examine smoking on film . . .

The entertainment industry has been under considerable pressure to rein in indecent broadcasts on TV and radio, and now may face the same criticism for depictions of smoking.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, pushed for the hearing [in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday] after several recent meetings between anti-smoking advocates and entertainment industry executives.

Hollywood's top lobbyist, Jack Valenti, is scheduled to testify along with LeVar Burton, co-chair of the Directors Guild of America's social responsibility task force, Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and Stan Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. Glantz is one of Hollywood's leading social critics who pushes for R ratings for movies in which the actors light up.

While Motion Picture Assn. of America chief Valenti has worked to get the anti-smoking message out, his trade group says it's a filmmaker's right to have the characters smoke or not.

Okay, Okay, I deleted my smoking Bowie.

I am nothing if not politically correct.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

The Pentagon sent around an e-mail telling people not to read the Taguba Report or download it from FOX News [sic].

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
The Pentagon sent around an e-mail telling people not to read the Taguba Report or download it from FOX News [sic].

If the whole world has read it, is it still really classified?

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
If the whole world has read it, is it still really classified?

Public PHI is still PHI.