Archive for August 24th, 2009

A Hig And A Poke

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Dunderheads are go!!!

Fresh from yet another round of revelations in Goingbackwardville, the Administration has decided to set up the High Value Detainee Interrogation Program or HIG to deal with high value detainees in the future, assuming we actually catch any.

Mostly, this is about Movingforwardville wanting to appear to be more reasonable, namely by having the Army field manual be the basis for interrogations, having the State Department along for the ride to Extraordinary Renditionville, and coordinating, yet again, the training and methods used by the FBI, CIA, and other interrogating bodies.

Of course, extraordinary rendition and secret prisons will continue, and continue to produce absolutely nothing of any intelligence value, but that’s more important than things like habeas corpus or holding officials accountable for authorizing and condoning torture.

Gorilla thinks: “A HIGup is better when the jig’s up, I suppose!”

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Will 500,000 Be Enough?

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Not for the Soviets, and alas we don’t have the capacity to field that many in Afghanistan.

So, we’re losing yet another war whose main objectives have changed so many times as to be laughable. Revenge was fine back in 2001, so we toppled the bad Taliban regime. Of course we didn’t capture the people who attacked us, and they remain at large.

Afghanistan remains what it has always been: a failed state, financed by drug money and run by tribal warlords. Is it a threat to the US? Hardly, but it might be a marginal inconvenience if we don’t get a handle on Islamic extremism in Central Asia and the Middle East.

That requires engagement, not fruitless military adventures. Gorilla thinks Obama knows this but is too afraid to engage while he’s getting beaten up domestically. It therefore will be a big surprise if we aren’t surgin’ to withdrawl within the next 18 months.

Gorilla: “The real winner in all this is Iran, we could do a deal with them just as we did with Qaddafi, but that requires facing reality, something the Pentagon’s masters have yet to master!”

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Boycott Scotland? Send Them Flowers!

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Another vacation era story that just doesn’t make sense is the outrage over the decision by Scotland to allow a terminally ill, convicted terrorist to return to Libya to die.

Another round of Freedom whiskey anyone?

The insensible is why this should cause the slightest shred of controversy. Scotland has laws allowing clemency for dying murderers. In the US, we continue with capital punishment, keeping pace with barbarian dictatorships worldwide.

The deal with Libya (nearly 15 years ago!) was quite simple: in exchange for a large payment to the Lockerbie families, the provision of the guilty by Tripoli to international trial, and a promise by Libya not to use terrorism in future, the West would get access to Libya’s vast oil resources. Both sides have certainly lived up to this bargain.

Gorilla says: “Scotland reminds us that we are supposed to be human beings with the capacity for humanity. George W. Bush’s torturers and the Lockerbie bombing remind us of just how difficult that is!”

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No Vacation From Torture

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Unless of course, you authorized it, that’s just fine, but if you actually did it, that’s different.

Torturers and bankers have more or less gotten the same message: if you’re too powerful, impunity is never having to say you’re sorry.

Gorilla, returned from vacation, says: “Our public officials are as clean as the coal in West Virginia!”

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