Yoo and Bybee

I do not understand how we can let war criminals loose. It is appalling.

John Yoo and Jay Bybee were absolved from any responsibility for their infamous "torture memos." Why? Apparently because the investigators of the case didn't give enough credit to the tense atmosphere right after 9/11.

Okay. And that means they're not responsible for their actions....how?

Sorry, but people are just as responsible for their actions when under stress as when they have nothing on their minds. It doesn't make you any less responsible for what you did.

From the NYTimes article-
"The report quotes Patrick Philbin, a senior Justice Department lawyer involved in the review, as saying that because of the urgency of the situation, he had advised Mr. Bybee to sign the memorandum, despite what he saw as Mr. Yoo’s aggressive and problematic interpretation of the president’s broad commander-in-chief powers in trumping international and domestic law."

"Okay, so I knew this wasn't exactly Constitutional, and I also knew this might not be the best thing to give the President, but I also thought that it might do...something...."

Okay. I see how this logic makes some sort of sense. In Wonderland.

From the same article-
"“While I have declined to adopt O.P.R.’s findings of misconduct, I fear that John Yoo’s loyalty to his own ideology and convictions clouded his view of his obligation to his client and led him to author opinions that reflected his own extreme, albeit sincerely held, view of executive power while speaking for an institutional client,” Mr. Margolis said."

And yet it was, apparently, not enough for them to actually say- "This guy is guilty."

When we let people like this off the hook, people who don't even have enough respect for the Constitution to consult it before giving the President power, what is our rule of law coming to?

Terrorists and Trials

The ruckus: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (or 'KSM' as he has been nicknamed by the media) is going to be tried here in the US. In New York City, to be precise.

Well, I see nothing wrong with that.

So long as he was read his Miranda Rights before he was arrested. Which I doubt. Highly. Mostly because he was captured not by American forces, but by the Pakistani Intelligence Services!!

Otherwise, he must be tried as a prisoner of war. And he needs to be tried. In fact, the international agreement we entered into concerning POWs means we must try him somehow. (Those are the Geneva Conventions, in case you were wondering.)

The problem is, at this point, that most of the men in Guantanamo Bay and the other unsanctioned prisons all over the world have not even had a chance to access counsel. These men are totally cut off from the world. They are charged, on evidence that is either coerced out of them or largely circumstantial. It must be circumstantial, because terrorist organizations don't just let their records out into the open (kind of like government and government officials).

Add to that the fact that many of the men detained at Gitmo and CIA black sites were not even captured by US forces- they were captured by Pakistani or other Middle Eastern forces, and then turned over to us. Makes me wonder- are the men they are giving us really terrorists, or just people the governments of those countries want to get rid of? And what are those countries' incentives?

Changing the 'status' of these men does nothing. Redefining them as 'enemy combatants' does nothing. An enemy combatant is a soldier who is fighting against you. When you capture him, that makes him a prisoner. Since we're supposedly at war, that makes him a prisoner of war. He should be afforded every courtesy generally given to POWs.

During World War II, the German and Japanese POWs were treated very well. This was because we hoped if we treated them well, our men would be treated well if captured. In fact, the POWs were treated so well that some of them stayed here, having gotten a very good taste of life in America.

I'm not saying that we should feed the men in Gitmo T-bone steak and turkey every day- but I do think there should be some semblance of openness in the process of everyday life and interrogations at Gitmo. The silence about what goes on there is worrisome.

There's also the problem of the CIA 'black-sites'. They are places generally in other countries with known histories of human rights violations where the CIA imprisons people with no oversight, no legal counsel, and giving absolutely no way for anyone to know where they are or what goes on behind their walls.

And all this in the name of national security.

We have imprisoned teenage boys, forced recruits, and cooks. Yes, some of them (a very few) have actually committed crimes. But the problem is that we don't know which ones have and which ones have not. They are given no trial, there is no review of the evidence, these men don't even have the benefit of a lawyer!

The CIA abducts men from their homes, sends them to other countries (extraordinary rendition) where it is quite likely they will be tortured or killed. These men are not told what they are being charged with, they are not given the benefit of a formal arrest, the arrests are not even carried out in an acceptable fashion!

And we justify all this by saying that they're 'just terrorists'. We don't need to worry about it because they want to kill us.

I have just one thing to say to that: even an evil man deserves a chance to defend himself. We gave Hitler's cronies that much benefit. We should do it for these men.

Current News

So, since there are so many issues I could cover today, I'm going to just go down the list, and deal with all of them. First up is... *drumroll*

The Swine Flu *scary music*

Yes, the swine flu- that scary pandemic that is sweeping the globe! Or, at least...parts of it.

The swine flu, which hundreds of people are dying from!! Or, nine people.

But, it will reach truly epidemic dimensions in mere weeks!!

Uh-huh. More scare tactics and diversionary politics on your plate, anyone? It's ridiculous. Yes, only nine people have died, eight of them in Mexico, and one in Texas. There have only been 265 confirmed cases all over the globe, 159 of them in Mexico. 3,964 are suspected to have it.

That out of, what, 6 and a half billion people in the world?

Yeah, this is a mass epidemic! Panic and mayhem! We can't treat the flu!! You must get vaccines! Let's forget the fact that the 'swine flu' behaves just like regular flu, and can be treated with two drugs: oseltamivir and zanamivir.

So what are we all worried about? Keep your hands washed, and eventually this 'epidemic' will go away, just like the others.

Terror and Torture *yet more scary music*

Yeah, cuz dontcha' know that those poor terrorists might get heebie-jeebies if we put a caterpillar in their confinement box?! And these brutal interrogation techniques are outlined in graphic, horrifying detail in a series of memos!! Help us!

Yeah. Okay. Let's forget the fact that what we constitute as 'torture'...the terrorists probably do just for the fun of it.

Here is a taste of the 'torture' techniques the CIA has been applying:

1. Walling, in which the terrorist is slammed into a flexible wall that rebounds. A hood or towel is rolled up and placed around his neck to prevent whiplash. The wall doesn't hurt him, simply induces a loud noise that might startle him.
2. The 'facial hold' is simple- the interrogator puts a hand on either side of the person's head, and holds their head immobile.
3. Facial slap, or insult slap. The interrogator lightly slaps the person's face with slightly spread fingers on their cheek. What is the outcome of this? The interrogator 'invades the individual's personal space'.
4. Confinement- usually in a small box of varying size. One allows the restrained person to stand up/sit down at will, the other allows only for sitting. The Justice Department lawyers wouldn't let the interrogators put a caterpillar in the box.
5. Wall standing- the individual is made to stand four or five feet from the wall, with his fingers resting on the wall.
6. Different stress positions, including sitting down flat on their bottom with their arms in the air, and on knees, leaning back at a 45 degree angle.
7. Sleep deprivation.
8. Waterboarding. A very popular sport amongst thrill seeking teenagers (according to my research), the person is bound securely to a bench or table. They're blindfolded. Water is put on the cloth, and they inch it down until it's over the nose/mouth. They continue to pour water on it for 20-40 seconds, inducing a feeling of drowning.
9. Might I add that during all of these, a doctor and medical staff was always ready to intervene should something really serious happen to the 'patient'.

And those things are torture? Wow. Let me deal with these one by one.

1. Walling sounds kind of fun, actually. Sort of like one of those weird rides at Six Flags. And much gentler, by the way.
2. My mom does that to us all the time. Oh no! Help! She's torturing meeee!!!
3. This is one of those hysterical laughing moments. Seriously. A slap that doesn't even induce pain is 'torture'? Give me a break.
4. Confinement box...well, at least it isn't like the Iron Maiden. Or one of those boxes Russians used to torture Christians. That is torture.
5. Oh no!! The caterpillar is going to get meeee!!
6. Wall standing? Hmm...monotonous, certainly, and might make your muscles sore.Stress positions? Ha. My sensei makes us do harder things. You try to stay in a split for two minutes.
7. Sleep deprivation? I have a nice, natural way they could do that- just give them a newborn baby. Bwahaha.
8. Waterboarding- while certainly not pleasant- isn't exactly the worst thing you can do to somebody. Believe me.

Here is a link to the memos themselves. Have fun. :)

Chrysler Bankruptcy

Yes, that's right. Despite the money our Spender-In-Chief has pumped into Detroit, Chrysler is declaring bankruptcy.

Ever the optomist, Obama is pumping more money into them.

I could scream.