The Bush Administration appears intent to go out on a low note. The United States has asked for as many as 15,000 Iraqi prisoners to be held without charge in Iraq even though the authority to hold the prisoners expired at the beginning of the New Year. I discussed the plan as well as the investigation of war crimes on Rachel Maddow in this segment.
The United States has been holding prisoners without charge under the authority of a U.N. Security Council resolution which expired on December 31. Under an international agreement taking effect on January 1st, the Bush Administration had agreed that all of its prisoners would be transfered to Iraqi custody for criminal charges or or freed “in a safe and orderly manner.”
U.S. military spokesman Major Neal Fisher now says that the Bush Administration wants the prisoners held without charge in violation of both the pact and Iraqi law. It appears that the Administration is seeking to shape its Iraqi government in its own image — asserting absolute
authority to disregard both international and domestic laws.
For the full story, click here.
Thank you Jill, I never want to perpetuate a falsehood and I *never* mind admitting my mistakes. The carnage in Gaza is real and documented.
I think that several days ago, the person who posted the outdated video wanted the world to understand the death and destruction. However, since the Israelis will still not allow news correspondents inside Gaza—in violation of their *own* Supreme Court’s order—the person lied to show what the current carnage “could be like” to the rest of the world. He was wrong then; however, we are viewing the actual carnage displayed by trusted news sources and it is very real.
We all know death tolls in war are tentative, but so far according to Reuters:
“Israel insists it is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties and ensure sufficient food and other humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. More than 700 Palestinians have died since its assault began 13 days ago.”
Reports of children killed is over 200 (257 the highest count)
Widely noted in numerous news accounts:
“The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) accused the Israeli military on Thursday of failing, “to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”
It would be interesting if Burn would read something s/he disagrees with and had the courage to give a point by point argument as to why s/he disgrees with the points, using not invective, but thoughtful remarks based on actual research.
Burn
Do you have the intestinal fortitude to read this?
W. and the damage done
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/08/damage/print.html
CCD,
I think you are correct. I contemplated why we even have 15,000 people still (or ever) in jail and I have no answer. With each person whom we unjustly hold we create 100’s more per person who will want revenge. The harm we have caused to ourselves and others is unspeakable. Our only hope is to make things right, which for me, at minimum, does mean holding all the top people accountable.
FFLEO,
I thought that your attempt to verify the video footage and tell of your findings showed you to be a person of very good character.
Burn in…err…Heaven:
Only this 1 blawg and none of the *liberals* here gave this conservative Republican the time of day regarding that video. They were much smarter than I.
You obviously know that Professor Turley is gone so you brave-up to post irrelevancies in this absence.
HEY! BURN,
There are sections on human rights violations, the Iraq war, torture and other topics very relevant to this thread.
Numerous embedded links give extensive in-depth details of many of the underlying points of discussion.
Hey Former Federal LEO,
How many blogs did you go to and post a link to the phony CNN video before you realized it was also fake, or don’t you care?
Hey Turley, nobody watches Rachael Maddow or haven’t you seen the ratings? HAVE FUN TALKING TO YOURSELF ON THE CAMERA! Well, at least she has a couple more viewers than Andy Cooper…but that isn’t very many at all is it.
Shame MSNBC wackos are so much in the tank for the party bankrupting America and our kids futures.
HEY!
Here is an excellent article encompassing an overview of G.W. bush’s failures and the results to this *once* great, proud, and prosperous Nation.
Entitled: ‘W. and the damage done’
“President Bush inherited a peaceful, prosperous America. As he exits, Salon consults experts in seven fields to try to assess the devastation”
salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/08/damage/index.html
I despise Mr. bush. He has ruined what this country stands for worldwide and at home and he destroyed my Republican Party.
I understand that international legal scholars say that bush/cheney will most unlikely never be held accountable during tribunals here or internationally for their war crimes and torture; however, perhaps some consortium of legal scholars will find a means to charge them criminally on other grounds or even through civil proceedings if that is justice as the last resort. I would gladly contribute to such a legal fund to help ensure that future presidents, including Mr. Obama, knew that they were never above the U.S. Constitution and the established rule of law.
Jill
The truthout article is beyond numbing. The pain, we’ve produced in Iraq will return to us collectively. It has nowhere else to go.
This is all so numbingly familiar.
http://www.truthout.org/120308J
This quote come from an article in Truthout. It talks of the beatings and other abuses in Iraqi prisons under US forces and the Iraqi govt. It mentions that we are not supposed to turn over prisoners to govt. that will abuse them, and I’m guessing this is the argument being presented by bush. This makes no sense as we have know of and approved these conditions from the beginning. I will link to the full article in the next block. The real story is just as in Gitmo, we have no real knowledge on why most of these people have even been detained.
“Now it appears, based on a November 23, 2008, report from the Associated Press (AP), that the vast majority of detainees are also being held without any hard evidence. The AP said that the US intends to release most of its detainees under SOFA, but that it is “rushing to build criminal cases against some 5,000 detainees it deems dangerous.” The report contained the remarkable admission attributed to Brig. Gen. David Quantock, commander of TF-134, that the US has evidence against “only a few hundred” of those detainees considered most dangerous.
Mr. P,
These irrelevant posts might be removed as other similar have been the last 2 days.
In effect, what happens is burnout et al. start a new thread topic with their repeated posts and take that singular right away from Professor Turley.
I don’t know but I have avatar envy, Mr. Plow.
What does any of burnout’s two comments have to do with this story?
CNN stung by fake atrocity video
The story was supposedly that a freelance journalist in Gaza returned home to find his younger brother dead, the victim of a missile attack on a residential rooftop from an unmanned IDF drone. The video shows the supposed scene of the attack, and follows the Gaza family from the hospital to the burial, after a heroic attempt by doctors to revive the young child.
It is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9pRu-sRPb0&eurl=http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/08/cnn-stung-by-fake-atrocity-video/
Only, when you look at the supposedly heroic effort, it lacks one thing: any sense that the two doctors are actually performing CPR with any effort at all. They stop as though they’ve scripted out the moment. That’s when viewers questioned whether the scene could have been faked.
A little more investigation determined that one of the doctors in the video is notorious terrorist apologist Mads Gilbert. The older brother, meanwhile, is no mere “free-lance cameraman” but the owner of a business that hosts Internet web sites for Hamas. In other words, this is a pitiful attempt at propaganda that only the likes of CNN, with a pre-existing animus to Israel, would put on the air without any checking of sources.
CNN, caught cold, has pulled the video from its rotation and its web site. The public will see if they own up to their mistake, or simply hope no one notices.
Media bias? LOL! Read this interview with so called PBS’s “journalist” Tavis Smiley on Joe Scarborough:
SMILEY: These are exciting times. When I was last year, the day after, November 5th, the day after the election, really I was excited then about what had happened and transpired the night before. As an African-American male I revel in this moment. I revel in his humanity, I revel in this victory. I love all the talk about hope and change. Here’s what I fundamentally believe, and there have been a number of examples since the election, Joe, that underscore this for me. I want Barack Obama to be a great president. I want him to be a great president. I believe that he can be a great president. But only if we help make him a great president. It is not left to his own devices, it’s not going to happen. We have to help make him a great president. And that’s not casting aspersion on him. No president who was ever great wasn’t helped in that process. There is no Abraham Lincoln without Frederick Douglas. And we could do this all day long. Every great president had people pushing them, had people helping them and encouraging them, empowering them to become great presidents. So I believe Obama can be. I want him to be. But we have to help make this guy a great president.
And a bit later . . .
SMILEY: There’s so much hype. So much hope. So much expectation. I don’t want him to falter in stepping into his moment because the challenges–to your point–are so great. And that’s not just a black thing. That’s an American thing, and I’m concerned, and I’m not the only one obviously who feels this way, I’m concerned about the people around him about what the people allow him, all these Clintonites. There’s a difference between being visionary and being revisionist. And what I’m sensing is, that we got a lot of folk that want to take us back to where we were, that’s revisionist. Can we be visionary? Can we really step into what this moment is? And that’s why I say I want him to be a great president. But we got to help. We can’t abandon him now. We can’t abandon our posts. What are we going to do to help make him a great president?
SEEMS MR. TAVIS THINKS THE MEDIA NEEDS TO MAKE SURE OBAMA IS SUCCESSFUL….!!!
We frequently see the bias of the mainstream media, but never so boldly. Journalists claim they exist to shine a light on the halls of power, to stop abuses and to expose malfeasance regardless of which party controls Washington DC.: iszatso?