More Torture Memos
Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray is defying a gag-order and publishing torture memos on his blog relating to the coordination between the Uzbek, British, and American governments. As Kos says, it’s brutal :
Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.Uzbekistan’s geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.
Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov’s vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?
. . .
The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN Convention;
“The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.” While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer:
“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless – we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.
Here’s what that partnership looks like in action :
At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family’s links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.
And this is the standard that we’re living under with a President who looks the other way while children are being tortured.
To the fools out there who routinely praise the President for having the “moral clarity” to call terrorists evil, how can you reconcile that with the chummy relationship he’s made with tyrants? The lesser of two evils argument doesn’t really work when you chide anyone whose view of fighting terrorism is more nuanced than “smoke them out of their holes” and you verbally fellate the President for being “right on the only issue that matters”. You’re either in favor of moral relativism or you’re not.
Of course, coming up with a worldview that’s logically consistent has it’s troubles, since it would naturally lead to having an open, honest debate about whether or not the United States should be torturing people. Which is why the Administration (and their sycophantic toadies) ignore the substance of the seemingly-neverending stream of torture memos in the hopes of running out the clock (ie. news cycle) with their vehement denials to misstated questioning.
But to take things back to square one, it should be repeated again and again that this would all stop if the President wanted it to. With a phonecall to the Uzbek government, he could threated to eliminate foreign aid until human rights abuses ceased. With a stroke of his pen, he could fire Donald Rumsfeld and replace him with a Defense Secretary serious about curbing detainee abuse. Working with Congressional leaders, he could cooperate with stymied investigations into torture. For the most powerful man in the world, the torture of innocent people could be eliminated tomorrow if he cared enough.
Why he hasn’t done any of these things leads us back to the eternal debate about the presidency of George W. Bush. Is he so isolated from bad news that he has no idea about the abuses that are happening on his watch? Is he a callous monster who thinks the torture of innocents is justified by the “greater good” of whatever the hell he’s trying to accomplish? Or is it a combination of the two? Either way, I don’t know how much longer we can afford to have the reputation of the United States tarnished while we ponder the endless “idiot or asshole?” debate.
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I believe that the President has distanced himself from reality and is on some sort of religious cloud 9 fighting some war with no ending. He will do whatever it takes to justify this madness.
Comment by Kryten Syxx — December 29, 2005 @ 1:33 pm
Is the NSA watching, reading, listening, wiretapping, eavesdropping?
What has the world become and where has America gone to? America seems more tyrannical than democratic let alone a republic.
He is not my president. Is he yours? Let’s hope not for the sake of human rights and decency.
Comment by Busty Buns Delight — December 29, 2005 @ 3:05 pm
Fucking awesome post! I don’t even realize how I got here but wow, that was incredible! Got to link this for the wingers to read, even it it means I get some “Yeah? So what?”’s
Comment by Phillybits — December 29, 2005 @ 4:26 pm
I just want the bible thumpin’ bastards who support this Son of a Bitch to read this.
Those hypocritical self-rightous accessories to torture and murder should burn in the deepest part of hell.
Comment by PlacitasRoy — December 29, 2005 @ 5:45 pm
George W. Bush has provided the American people with a mirror we can no longer avoid.
Since the end of WWII list of our repressive, dictatorial allies has been long and consistent. Shah Rezi Palevi, Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein (back when he was the enemy of our enemy), successived South African appartheid regimes,Papa Doc Duvalier, General Suharto, the King of Morocco and the entire House of Saud—and those are just the ones that come easily to mind.
For US to be shocked at kidnapping and rendition to secret torture sights is bordering on the laughable. The only thing that has changed is that this President has had the audacity to blatantly display our active complicity. It was perfectly acceptable to prosper from the countries whose resources we wanted or whose location was strategic run by dictators we could control, but we could at least convince ourselves that we had no part in torturing political prisoners or masacring whole villages to frighten a population into submission.
That delusion has been dispelled for all time thanks to George W. Bush. His mirror shows us what we have become and it isn’t pretty.
Comment by anne — December 29, 2005 @ 5:55 pm
How about a christmas present for chimpo, like box tickets to “Our American Cousin”?
Comment by Kansas School Board — December 29, 2005 @ 6:03 pm
Bloggers Publish UK torture memos
Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray today published two documents at his website despite a ban imposed by British officials. Murray, whose book regarding these documents has been blocked for months by the UK Foreign Office, recently likened…
Trackback by Everything Between — December 29, 2005 @ 6:14 pm
Our Great Leader was one of those kids who liked to pull wings off baby birds as a child. He is a sociopathic monster plain and simple … deluded by his version of Christianity (stuck in the vengeful Old Testament), and couldn’t have a good thought, or do a good deed if his life depended on it.
I believe he may just be a second cousin of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or perhaps Stalin.
Comment by webegeeks — December 29, 2005 @ 7:10 pm
Does America have a soul?
Is America run by the Mason’s?
Is Billy Graham as Mason?
Did the John Birch Society types do in the United States and democracy for all-time?
Was America ever really a democracy or a republic?
America condones many bad things and has lived a lie for many decades now. America has become tyrannical and undemocratic and has supported corrupt and criminal leaders all over the world. The economic system of state capitalism merged with the Christian right will have the society in America poor really fast so those Bible thumping mason preaches can convert Americans from their wickedness.
Its such a shame that Americans are so blissfully ignorant and at the same time too arrogant for their own good as America survives on all borrowed foreign money. Americans better wake up quick before you are all living under armed guard with checkpoints to boot. Keep voting in the Republicans, ala, the Christian right fundies, and America will soon look as dismal as the State of Mississippi.
Americans have become more ignorant than the cave men were and this is with language and technology that this has happened.
Comment by Lenin's Ghost — December 29, 2005 @ 9:53 pm
It’s Fascism. Sorry But it is.
It’s a crippling of the social structure of the government and the replacement of a corporate police state.
It is… You can see it so clearly… Like the Germans in 1939… You are the bad guys in a forming world war. You cannot win this.
I hope this nightmare ends without too much bloodshed.
Comment by Krackonis — December 29, 2005 @ 10:16 pm
“The ends justify the means” Bush’s philosophy.
Comment by Pat Walters — December 29, 2005 @ 10:57 pm
I agree with Anne. We are condoning this horrific behaviour by tolerating it. I just don’t know what to do to make anything better. Torture is wrong . Period. We should not be in Iraq. Period. We should not be destabalizing democracies. Period. Somehow, we need to , peacefully and legally get rid of this adminsitration and not replace them with more of the same. Democrats just don’t seem to be worth voting for, it is time for a third party, (which would be, in reality a second party_) The Democrats and Republicans are way too much alike.
Comment by Melissa — December 29, 2005 @ 11:33 pm
“Is he so isolated from bad news that he has no idea…. Is he a callous monster…..”
“Plausible Deny-ability” Pure and simple. I am sure Bushy thinks he is covering his ass….
Comment by fwacbar — December 30, 2005 @ 4:31 am
when is everybody going to get it our government loves torture ,loves oppression,loves killing freedom,just look at what our government has done since 911, they have turned this country over to the zionist neocons that have done everything in thier power to flush our constitution down the tiolet along with the bill of rights.WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE,if you think a plane hit the pentagon you need help fast.
Comment by ron — December 30, 2005 @ 5:34 am
Reading the sanitized text of this report, I am reminded that the sensibilities of the public must be spared, and civility dictates that we do not describe the very techniques it abhores. Yet it is the imagery that turns our stomachs, that has a chance of influencing that large segment of American society who would rather not know. The napalmed, charred skin of a crying little girl running away from U.S. bombing was one such imagery that helped shorten the Vietnam war. Uzbeks boiled victims in oil, say it. In the matter of ending torture, one cannot make nice.
Comment by TRex — December 30, 2005 @ 6:51 am
The fact is that Bush and the republicans have no respect for their voting constituency. They know that they are fools and continually insult them, just like the fundamentalist ministers do. I mean look at them[fundamentalists] on TV. They insult their congregations, call them names, and feed them false doctrines[that of the anti christ, the rapture] or lies, and then beg for money and these idiots give it to them. It is the blue states that are the productive states and the red states are economic parasites.The politicians see this behavior by the fundamentalist and conduct themselves accordingly. The problem is that we who are aware of these dynamics are affected along with the idiots and fools who are taken in by these charlatans. These dynamics are not new or even novel. Hitler used them and by including fear[the 9/11 strategy]it is an effective strategy which Hermann Goerring pointed out in an interview in November 1945 when being questioned in connection with the Nuremberg trials investigation. In fact, Goerring said it was easy and worked irrespective of the type of government. It was Ed Rollins who said on TV that the Republicans use the same strategy that the Nazis used because if it worked for the Nazis that it would work for the Republicans so why wouldn’t they use it. Rollins is a high profile Republicans strategist and former Republican National Comittee[RNC] chairman is the early 80’s. So, it’s obviously where we are headed. The federal government is going to be a tax collection agency for business interests. The government insuring investors income with tax dollars. This isn’t capitalism, which inherently includes risk to the investors. The risk factor is being taken out by tax dollars. This is facism, by definition.
Comment by ken lusk — December 30, 2005 @ 6:53 am
“Geroge Bush, he’s incredible…he’s a gangsta!” - 50 cent
Comment by Santi Seattle — December 30, 2005 @ 7:00 am
Visit http://www.editorialpaintings.com
See “Extraordinary Rendition” - Bush in custody. Read a summary of war crimes.
See “Black Ribbon” - Support the truth about these people and wonder when your community will be next.
And many others…
Comment by Martin Ostrye — December 30, 2005 @ 8:30 am
I would add a further facist trait this administration personifies to a “T”. All internal contradictions are smoothed away by the personality cult of the “leader”.
Of course the Christian extremists who love Bush have two millenia of practice, accepting the Bible as indisputable truth despite the fact it contradicts itself repeatedly.
How’s this: He’s an idiot and an asshole.
Comment by Gabeturzo — December 30, 2005 @ 9:18 am
greg,
you’re wrong in those last two paragraphs. i find it awkward to actually be defending the bush administration on anything, but i know too much about uzbek-american relations not to speak up. more info is here
Comment by upyernoz — December 30, 2005 @ 10:03 am
One person asked “what can we do?”. Well I write my senator and house rep quite regular like,like at least once a week. But all I get back is gobblty-goop. Last week the so called honerable John Warner’s office sent me three letters. The problem was they were all the same letter, three of them, same ,same same. But I keep trying. Maybe someday things will change if we do not let up. Keep writing till it hurts, everyone please write to their reps. even if they give you gobblty-goop back!!!!!!!
Comment by Harvey Simpson — December 30, 2005 @ 10:14 am
Upyernoz, I’ve got an update here.
Don’t write your reps, write your local media. Tug on the local heartstrings and make it clear that the representative in question is working against the interests of your community. The best way to get the attention of a politician is to scare them into thinking they might not be reelected.
Comment by greg — December 30, 2005 @ 10:44 am
Posted by Greg:
“Is he so isolated from bad news that he has no idea about the abuses that are happening on his watch? Is he a callous monster who thinks the torture of innocents is justified by the “greater good” of whatever the hell he’s trying to accomplish? Or is it a combination of the two?”
Posted by webegeeks:
“Our Great Leader was one of those kids who liked to pull wings off baby birds as a child. He is a sociopathic monster plain and simple … deluded by his version of Christianity (stuck in the vengeful Old Testament), and couldn’t have a good thought, or do a good deed if his life depended on it.”
Good posts.
Bush is indeed a callous monster. He’s a textbook-perfect Sociopath. There is no cure for his mental illness and none for America, the country he and his fellow louts have systematically raped and pillaged since 9/11 provided them with the opportunity.
What would a monster like Bush care about the citizens of Uzbekistan when he so obviously feels nothing for the citizens, traditions or reputation of his own country?
Comment by arthurdecco — December 30, 2005 @ 11:20 am
NOSTRADAMUS; Beware the peace makers.
Evey now and then a country goes for it.
The French tried and failed and the Germans gave it a shot. Russia went the slow road but even with total control of it’s print and airwave information prop tools, it still ended up imploding on itself. But will they have the last laugh?
Now it’s the neo-cons who have the green light under the blanket of media silence and are putting together all the mistakes the other war stooges stumbled over. If Iraq is to be the launching pad then the US is now just getting started. Baby we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Problem for Bush is that America no longer has any , I mean zero credibility. Does it matter to these artful criminals?
From the looks of things in your own governments response to America’s needs, I’d say , no. What you say does not speak louder than what you do. CNN might carry stories of Iraqi babies with turmors being sent to America for help but it still falls short. A kinder , gentler machine gun hand just doesn’t work for these people who will suffer DU sand poisoning for the next couple of hundred thousand years.
The rest of the world see’s 911 as an inside jump from the top down and see Americans as being so dumbed down by it all that there is little hope you’ll ever figure it out. Where’s the story of American soldiers dying of cancer
or the increase of birth defects in military families who went to Iraq?
An American General said “war is a money racket”
Your leaders desperation to keep your dollar from falling has morphed itself into a raging beast of such burden not even they can stop it. It has created wounds too deep to heal and like all countries who fail in world domination under the banner of freedom, time is your enemy.
As far as the world knows American politics is it’s own worst enemy. For nothing is more dangerous than a government that has nothing left to lose.
Comment by Jack Smith — December 30, 2005 @ 11:44 am
We are all going to have to face facts,
reality trumps faith every time.
Bush believes his subconscious is actually the word of God.
America, far from being able to fight “two, or more, major wars simultaneously in different theatres” as, Wolfowitz, Cheney, etc. all stated,is loseing two small, nasty, colonial wars.
We’ve all spent this christmas knowing a major American City is dying.(Bye bye New Orleans).
And the American people did nothing effective to prevent it, instead, they went shopping.
DaveGood
Comment by DaveGood — December 30, 2005 @ 11:55 am
How many of the 15 listed traits does Shrub exibit?
http://home.datawest.net/esn-recovery/artcls/socio.htm
Comment by Dave — December 30, 2005 @ 11:59 am
Without doubt, Bush and his fraternity are crypto-fascists. What makes them so contemptible is their lame efforts to be “crypto.” They are banking on “The Big Lie.” Just keep indignantly putting it out there and eventually it will become accepted history. I just heard on CNN that a poll determined that George Bush was the most admired man in the US. It makes me want to emigrate to Finland or Norway.
Comment by Thomas Patton — December 30, 2005 @ 1:09 pm
Hmmmmm, let’s run down the list of impeachable, I would argue imprisonable, offenses by this administration:
1. Election rigging and fraud
2. Torture (which is against international and US law)
3. Illegal spying on Americans
4. Lying to get us into a war
5. Treason (for giving over power to a foreign intelligence, i.e., Israel)
6. Using internationally banned weaponry (firebombing Fallujah) and cluster bombs, and Depleted uranium
and most importantly,
7. 9/11, and inside job to start the whole war on terror bullshit. Americans need to wake up to this whole neocon charade. Ask yourselves why there were 200 Israeli spies in this country right before and after 9/11 many of them posing as art students. A couple of them where caught dancing and laughing it up as they were filming the towers burning. Hah, hah, hah, what good fun! This was reported in both Salon magazine and on Fox News (believe it or not) by Carl Cameron. Of course, our own rouge elements in this government were involved as well, but look who’s controlling the administration right now– Neo-cons who are Israeli firsters.
go to 911truth.org or wtc7.net for more info.
Comment by maya — December 30, 2005 @ 2:58 pm
America are you still free? Abramoff and Delay are in your face criminals that are free to roam while Bush spies on John Doe because he simply visited the Rense site.
Enough lies to fill a very thick book and a congress that won’t bring Bush to the table to answer for bending the laws and trying to stack the deck?
If this were a dictatorship!?
Your looking at it right now.
Comment by Donn Catman — December 30, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
Americans seem to lack any morals or scruples. Americans continue to vote in the Republican party into office which is comprised of the Christian right, the rednecks in the South, and the neocons or neoNazis. America has been disintegrating since the Nixon-Ford-Reagan-Bush-(41) years. The democracy in America is a joke and a fraud. There cannot be a democracy without justice, peace, and respect for the civil rights and human rights of all citizens regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, or religious practice. America is nothing but a plutocracy of state capitalism as well as crony capitalism.
America lacks the values and the democracy it lectures other nations about all the time. President Bush has no regard for international laws or international agreements as none of the Bush administration seem to care about. America backed out the ABM Treaty with Putin of Russia before September 11, 2001. The United States waged an illegal war against Iraq with the help of the Brits and Tony Blair. The United States and Britian both use the methods of torture. The Brits are hardly innocent on this charge at all, either. The radical right in America opposes international laws and the United Nations. The radical right supports the torture and kill policies of the Bush-Cheney government. The radical right in the United States does not have compassion for the disabled or the mentally ill. Its the radical right who wants to cut all federal spending given to the disabled and the mentally ill in America. Cuts in Medicaid led by the radical right are the same people who claimed they were defending a disbaled person’s right to life in Terry Schiavo yet cut the same Medicaid program which she was on till her death months back. The Republicans talk out of both sides of their ass and mouth. The Republicans are the pro-death party and not the pro-life party they lecture to others about on a constant basis.
The Republicans are destructive and they enjoy killing as the modern genocide party. Which country used weapons of mass destruction already? The United States did so against the Japanese in WW II. Which nation armed other nations in the Middle East? America did from Iran under the Shah to Sadat and Egypt and now Mubark to Saudi Arabia to Israel to Jordan. Yes, the United States war economy or state capitalism has funded these nations in money and weaponry. Which nation supported Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran War? The United States did. Which nation supported the Afghan Arabs also known as the mujihadeen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? The United States along with the Pakistani ISI and the government of Saudi Arabia. Which country backed Manuel Noriega, Augusto Pinochet, and Saddam Hussein in the 1980s? The United States of America did.
The United States should stop lecturing about human rights and democracy with the awful record on civil rights right in America’s own country. The United States has an awful record on civil rights and human rights and nobody should be surprised that the USA resorts to torture out in the open these days. The Republican party and the radical right are anti-union just like Adolf Hitler was in Nazi Germany. From Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan to the present time in the United States there has been an anti-Union and anti-social program society brewing. Thatcher’s plan of privatizing Social Security was an abject failure. The whole privatization scheme of Thatcher is right out of the playbook of Adolf Hitler and the old Royal Monarchs from past English History. The Poor Laws are now a thing of the past. I wonder if Thatcher secretly admired Hitler like Reagan and the Bush’s do?
VP Cheney has justified this action since he so much opposes the FISA court, the Boland Amendment, and the War Powers Act. Cheney when he was in the House of Representatives voted that Nelson Mandela was a “terrorist” while he was a prisoner in the hands of the apartheid regimew in Spouth Africa under the right-wing Republican’s allied regime of DeKlerk in South Africa. Israel was another ally of the apartheid regime there as well as the British government.
The British track record on civil and human rights sucks too. One good historical look aty the way the British view the Irish is no different than how the West views the Aabs anbd Muslims. The Brits at one time sought to Anglicize people including the Irish, and who can ever forget the justification of Sir Charles E. Trevelyan in starving the Irish to death just because they happened to be Catholics?
This problem in the Modern Middle East is very bit the fault of inept and corrupt British policies of the past as much as it is the moral responsibility of America to not use torture or other inhumane methods as the Brits still use against the Irish. The Brits should not act all that mighty and moral here either as they still oppress the Irish.
Comment by Jack — December 30, 2005 @ 8:38 pm
Just do not support the creeps any longer. Pay no taxes to support their ways. Quit. Trust your real survival to the common good. Die if you must, but don’t partake of the madness. Heh…God bless us, for we shall need it!
Peace peeps..
Comment by anony — December 30, 2005 @ 10:49 pm
The USA is living through a nightmare. We can only hope that we shall awaken soon and that the sunlight will drive away the psychopathic monsters who we have allowed to highjack our great country.
Comment by Robin Ewart — December 31, 2005 @ 2:03 pm
Great Post!
George W. Bush is about as much of a Christian as was Anton Lavey or Aleister Crowley. This man layed naked in a coffin and gave up his most kept secrets along with his soul to Sata! Theres no going back when you commit the Unpardonable Sin. He traded his soul for wealth and power. His entire family worships Satan along with his administration. Almost all the leaders of this world Bush, Blair,Kerry, Clintons, Sharon are into mutiple occults from the Skull and Bones to God knows what else. Some of you may not believe in any god, but remember this, they do and its not the same god that real Christians believe in. Satanisim, torture, human traffiking, etc. Doesnt sound very Christian to me. Sounds evil. The only way to beat these bastards is to expose them, bring them into the light so all can see their true nature.
Comment by XPIOLT — December 31, 2005 @ 2:42 pm
There are many ways to help expose these sub-humans. infowars.com and prisonplanet.tv are just 2.
Comment by XPIOLT — December 31, 2005 @ 2:54 pm
NOTHING and i mean NOTHING the bush administration does or has done will surprise me, and i mean NOTHING, .. sadly ~
Comment by bDavidLonghurst — December 31, 2005 @ 5:49 pm
The British are no better when it comes to using the methods of torture and being an oppresive, racist, government itself.
Bush is an awful president as was Reagan but their colaborators have been in Britain–Blair and Thatcher. The world of neoliberalism falls right on the doorstep of Maggie Thatcher as it does on Reagan. This world fascism and the New World Order is as much British as it is American. Thanks to the new global order supported by the Thatcher’s more terrorism has developed, disese has increased, and the gap between rich and poor has widened. Like the British werr ever concerned about the poor, suffering or hungry. The Brits glady and joyfully starved the irish to death in the Irish Famine and created the Irish diaspora for which the Brits still need to atone for. The Brits and Maggie Thatcher damaged this world every bit as much as Bush and Reagan have. This new world order of world fascism is something the Brits since Churchill supported. The Brits are ruthless ans are still mad they lost their power but want to work alongside America with the same brutality they always used. By the way Brits, which natioin started the mess in the Modern Middle East? Remmeber the Balfour Declaration and the early Zionists in England who supported the Israeli government and led the charge for the creation of the Jewish state. The Brits were the ones who led in the colonization effort and the redrawin up of the Levant after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Brits can save their phony tears and phony concern for the Brtish government still uses torture. As a matter of fact, the Britis proudly had genocide policies they boasted of back in the mid-1840s.
The Bush regime should be impeached for this illegal war, but this does not absolve Tony Blair or the British government for allowing the illegal invasion and the subsequent torture of innicent Iraqis. The world has become a shithole thanks to leaders like Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan too!
Comment by Spuds — January 1, 2006 @ 10:03 am
no debate Greg on “idiot or asshole” . . .
they aren’t exclusive, and there are but two verities in this 21st century:
1. it’s about oil, and
2. Bush is a moron.
A “happy” new year comprises staying out of the concentrtion camps for 365 more days. In that light, I hope you have one so long as you continue to search for the truth and not for vengeance.
Comment by SamSnedegar — January 2, 2006 @ 6:14 am
reading these posts reminds me of why i read the blogs! christ, there is more infomative people here than on any tv, radio or newspaper! i feel like i’m in the Never Ending Story, wallowing through the swamp of dispair, barely holding on. reading about others that can clearly see we are in the deepest of doooody, some how gives me the strength to see another day. america is so fucking lost! election day ‘06 could easily decide our fate as a nation. vote early and vote often (just kidding!)
Comment by sharlene c — January 2, 2006 @ 1:45 pm
2006: The Year to Say “Enough is Enough!”
The past decade has seen the systematic whittling away of civil liberties, the bypassing of judicial due process, and even…
Trackback by Mano Singham's Web Journal — January 3, 2006 @ 6:17 am
An american squad, patrolling a deserted rural road south of Baghdad stumbles across the dead body of an armed Iraqi insurgent, in a ditch beside the road.
While they are trying to work out what happened they hear a groan from the ditch on the other side of the raod, they rush over and find a badly wounded American soldier.
They ask what happened and he tells them that he was just walking down the road when he suddenly found himself nose to nose with the insurgent, both have thier guns leveled on each other but niether fires.
To break the riseing tension the soldier roars at the Insurgent…..”Saddam is a murderous Bastard!”
And the insurgent screamed back….” Bush is a lying, cowardly, S**t!”
“Then what happened?” asks the patrol.
“Well,” says the soldier, ” We were still shaking hands when the truck hit us.”
Comment by DaveGood — January 3, 2006 @ 11:39 am
hopefully enuuff peeople will wake up before the next reichstaa…. law in america will happen then the whoi mean 9/11 type event, if not marshel le world is ffucked . england will be next
its allready started here the UK is about five years behhind the usa .
Some people think that world war 2 was
a test for whats hapening now but its more likly “they” the mysterious scum bag mason type peopel at the top are utalizing nazi tactics to get there “new world order” .But theese dick heads dont seem to comprohend that LIGHT FILLS DARK, and not the other way around try as it might dark canot smother light . i cant beelive these lower life forms refer to the genral population as cattel ,the majorty of people may be pretty thick almost likee catteel or sheep getting hearded into eutopia but theey are still supeerior to there heearders who are to pussy to sshow them selvs,
/rant over/
by the way the only reaon drugs are illegal is becaue its easyer to get the reebeliouse and intligant to take them it the only way they can control some of us ,why do you thinnk bush reealy hit afgahn look at how much more heeroin theree is thesee daays and why is it so much stronger and so much cheapeer? any way thaats the only way the fuckers had me and now they dont.
remember kids take aanything you see on the tv with a pinch of ssalt eveen more so than whaat i have to say ,and just switch your enternal spam filter on for the comercial breaks.
Comment by 90000 hertz BZZZZZZZZZZ — February 20, 2006 @ 4:50 pm