War Handwavium

The session will begin on Thursday and is expected to last into the following day.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091013163035586460.html

On 1 October 2009, I posted that the Palestinian Authority, under heavy pressure from the United States, had withdrawn its support for a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on alleged war crimes in Gaza that suggested Israel had committed war crimes in its three-week war against Gaza. The report wouldn’t get much traction if the Palestinians didn’t support it. The Palestinian government withdrew support after the US pressured them to drop support. And the US likely pressued the Palestinians to drop support because the US is such a unilateral supporter of Israel that the US would turn its back on war crimes committed by Israel.

On 8 October 2009, I posted that the UN Security Council had declined to discuss the Goldstone report in an emergency session.

Well, today, 9 October 2009, I can post that the Palestinian representative to the United Nations in Geneva is again pushing to discuss the report, reversing the Palestinian Authority’s decision from 1 October to allow the report to sink into obscurity. Apparently, the Palestinian president, Abbas, realized that he represented the Palestinians rather than being a mere puppet of American interests. And given that the Security Council wouldn’t take it up, a lot of outraged Palestinians probably let their government know that they weren’t too happy about it.

Maybe if the report gets back on the table, then Israel will be held accountable for its deeds.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009108222821260976.html

Less than a year into his presidency, Obama has won the Nobel peace prize.

This same day, Glenn Greenwald notes the accomplishments that Obama has achieved in those few months:

In February, the Obama DOJ went to court to block victims of rendition and torture from having a day in court, adopting in full the Bush argument that whatever was done to the victims is a “state secret” and national security would be harmed if the case proceeded. The following week, the Obama DOJ invoked the same “secrecy” argument to insist that victims of illegal warrantless eavesdropping must be barred from a day in court, and when the Obama administration lost that argument, they engaged in a series of extraordinary manuevers to avoid complying with the court’s order that the case proceed, to the point where the GOP-appointed federal judge threatened the Government with sanctions for noncompliance. Two weeks later, “the Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, [tried] to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.”

In April, the Obama DOJ, in order to demand dismissal of a lawsuit brought against Bush officials for illegal spying on Americans, not only invoked the Bush/Cheney “state secrets” theory, but also invented a brand new “sovereign immunity” claim to insist Bush officials are immune from consequences for illegal domestic spying. The same month — in the case brought by torture victims — an appeals court ruled against the Obama DOJ on its “secrecy” claims, yet the administration vowed to keep appealing to prevent any judicial review of the interrogation program. In responses to these abuses, a handful of Democratic legislators re-introduced Bush-era legislation to restrict the President from asserting “state secrets” claims to dismiss lawsuits, but it stalled in Congress all year. At the end of April and then again in August, the administration did respond to a FOIA lawsuit seeking the release of torture documents by releasing some of those documents, emphasizing that they had no choice in light of clear legal requirements.

In May, after the British High Court ruled that a torture victim had the right to obtain evidence in the possession of British intelligence agencies documeting the CIA’s abuse of him, the Obama administration threatened that it would cut off intelligence-sharing with Britain if the court revealed those facts, causing the court to conceal them. Also in May, Obama announced he had changed his mind and would fight– rather than comply with — two separate, unanimous court orders compelling the disclosure of Bush-era torture photos, and weeks later, vowed he would do anything (including issue an Executive Order or support a new FISA exemption) to prevent disclosure of those photos in the event he lost yet again, this time in the Supreme Court. In June, the administration “objected to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA detainees at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge that doing so would endanger national security.” In August, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder announced that while some rogue torturers may be subject to prosecution, any Bush officials who relied on Bush DOJ torture memos in “good faith” will “be protected from legal jeopardy.” And all year long, the Obama DOJ fought (unsuccessfully) to keep encaged at Guantanamo a man whom Bush officials had tortured while knowing he was innocent.

It’s kind of difficult to reconcile that Obama won the peace prize after doing all of THAT. Then I read a FAQ that reveals some of the myths about the Nobel peace prize:

Myth: The Nobel peace prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.

Fact: More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.

So, maybe the Nobel commission is hoping Obama will stop continuing Bush’s torture doctrines. But the headliner reason given is because of Obama’s initives to reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles. Maybe the torture stuff might be a nice bonus.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/08/photos/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace_myths

Obama is living in a fantasy world regarding the Mideast peace process.

Netanyahu knows that nothing Israel does will ever threaten the billions of dollars that the US sends Israel every year. Nothing. Therefore Netanyahu continues to build illegal israeli settlements on palestinian land, knowing that there are no real repurcussions to his actions.

Netanyahu is like the schoolyard bully who has to go to the principal’s office once in a while to listen to some pointless lecture about being nice, and then he goes back out into the schoolyard and bullies other students again. A stern lecture from Obama is of no significance to Israel so long as the money keeps coming in.

It looks more and more like the only way to break this chain is for the rest of the world to bring Israel up on war crime charges from it’s 2008 bombardment and invasion of Gaza, and force the US to face it’s inaction (and monetary support) around Israel being a bully.

So long as the US continues sending billions of dollars to Israel every year, so long as the US uses its veto power on the Security Council to prevent the UN from condemning Israel’s actions, there will be no peace in the middle east.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/20099248482648228.html

Seven CIA directors (3 served under Bush Jr., 2 served under Clinton, 1 served under Bush Sr., 1 served under Nixon) have written a letter to President Obama telling him that the Attorney General should not investige the CIA for any crimes, ever.

In other news, several mafia bosses have sent a letter to the president saying that organized crime should not be investigated.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/19/cia/index.html

on 11 September 2001, 19 Al Queda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. They flew two into the World Trade Center in New York and they flew one into the side of the Pentagon in D.C. The passengers on the fourth airliner fought back and that aircraft crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania.

The attacks resulted in 2,993 deaths, including the hijackers. 55 of the victims were military personel at the Pentagon. All the others were civilians. 329 of those civilians were from other countries, including the United Kingdom, South Korea, Philippines, Mexico, Japan, Jamaica, Italy, India, Germany, Columbia, Canada, and Australia, among others.

Fifteen of the hijackers are from Saudi Arabia, two are from the United Arab Emirates, one is from Egypt, and one is from Lebanon.

Within 5 hours of the attack Donald Rumsfeld is pushing to attack Iraq.

November 2001, Dick Cheney lays out the “one percent doctrine”. If there is a one-percent chance that something will happen, the US has to treat it as a certainty. (unless it relates to Global Warming, of course).

December 2001, Cheney is saying that Mohammed Atta had connections with Iraqi intelligence. It’s not true.

December 2001, So-called journalist, Judith Miller reports that Iraq has 20 hidden WMD sites. It’s not true.

By January of 2002, Americans are torturing prisoners, including Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. While being tortured, al-Libi claims that al Quaeda sent operatives to Iraq to acquire WMD’s. It’s not true. That same month, Alberto Gonzoles issues a policy memo that authorizes torture.

January 2002, the first prisoners arrive at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo.

By March of 2002, Bush begins “stovepiping” intelligence, taking it directly from the CIA without their analysis and filtering, and begins cherry picking what he wants to believe. At about the same time, Ahmed Chalabi, starts supplying defectors from Iraq who provide the CIA with reports, which are then “stovepiped” directly to Bush. Chalabi heads the Iraqi National Congress, created in 1992 for the purpose of formenting the overthrow of Saddam. And Chalabi hopes Saddam gets kicked out and hopes he’ll be made the new leader of Iraq.

March, 2002, US Intellgence report looking at the information coming in regarding the allegations that Iraq is trying to buy “yellow cake” from Niger states that these rumors are clearly false and the CIA should have made clear this fact rather than allowing the White House to cherry pick what it wanted to believe. In March of 2002, Bush publicly announces that Saddam is actively pursuing nuclear weapons. It’s not true.

June 2002: Operation Southern Focus begins in secret. US aircraft fly missions into Iraq to prep it for invasion. 20,000 sorties will be flown between June 2002 and March 2003 when the invasion begins.

August 2002, Cheney publicly states that we now know with certainty that Saddam has an active WMD program and is looking to acquire nuclear weapons. It’s a lie.

August 2002, Abu Zubaydah is waterboarded 83 times in one month

September 2002, so-called journalist Judith Miller reports that Saddam has purchased thousands of aluminum tubes to use for uranium enrichment. Cheney, Condelezza Rice, and the entire White House will begin paroting about these nuclear enrichment tubes. But almost a year before, Ms. Rice’s staff had been told that the government’s foremost nuclear experts seriously doubted that the tubes were for nuclear weapons. Experts informed the White House that they were likely for small artillery rockets.

September 2002, Cheney says Mohamed Atta had traveled to Prague and met with Iraqi intelligence officers. It’s a lie. The CIA had previously told him this was not credible.

September 2002, Saddam says a UN inspection team can enter Iraq. Hans Blix will be the head of the team. They will enter Iraq in December.

September 2002, Four days after being told by intelligence agencies that there is no connection between Iraq and al-Queada, Bush is telling journalists “You can’t distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.” It’s a lie.

October 2002, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is sent to Congress days before lawmakers will vote to authorize use of military force against Saddam. The report states with “high confidence” that Iraq “has now established large-scale, redundant and concealed BW agent production capabilities.” It said “all key aspects” of Iraq’s offensive BW program “are active and that most elements are larger and more advanced than they were before the Gulf War.” This was in fact untrue and the CIA at that time had reason to believe that it wasn’t true. The NIE also reports that Iraq has 500 tons of yellow cake from Niger (it doesn’t), mentions the aluminum tubes for centrifuges (which aren’t), that Saddam has stockpiled 100 to 500 tons of chemical weapons (he hasn’t), that Saddam is producing biological weapons in mobile labs (he isn’t). The report states it has “high confidence” that “Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding, its chemical, biological, nuclear and missile programs” (it isn’t), “high confidence” that “Iraq possesses proscribed chemical and biological weapons and missiles” (it doesn’t).

October 2002, “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002″ is passed by US Senate and House.

November 2002, The UN passes Resolution 1441, calling for immediate and comlete disarmament of Iraq, demanding declare all WMD’s, and requiring that Iraq submit to inspections. The Resolution does not authorize the use of force if Iraq fails to comply.

January 2003, Hans Blix reports to UN that he has found no “smoking gun” so far while inspecting Iraq. UN press release states “It would appear that Iraq had decided in principle to provide cooperation on substance in order to complete the disarmament task through inspection.” After 60 days of work, 106 sites have been inspected.

February 2003, Bush announces that “Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al-Qaeda” and “Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training.” All of this is a lie.

February 2003, Hans Blix reports to UN that they have inspected 300 sites without restrictions in 11 weeks. No WMD’s found.

March 2003, Hans Blix reports to UN that Iraqis are cooperating with inspections and that they have found no evidence of mobile biological labs.

March 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is waterboarded 183 times during the month

March 2003, Bush has been pushing for a UN Resolution authorizing military force against Iraq. It becomes clear it will not pass. Bush announces the “Coalition of the Willing” will enforce the resolution without UN approval. Only four countries provide troops for the actual invasion: The US, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Australia, Poland, and Denmark.

March 17, 2003, Bush Jr. addresses the nation, saying “every measure has been taken to avoid war”, then he gives Saddam and his sons 48 hours to step down from power. Bush invokes “regime change” as the trigger for the war, when no UN resolution ever approved it, when the reason given in the months preceding were that Iraq had to comply with UN Resolution 1441 demanding Iraq disarm and comply with inspections to confirm. UN Inspector Hans Blix’s most recent report states that inspections are working and he should be complete in a few months.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq begins. Rumsfeld said we’d be out in 6 days, 6 weeks, or 6 months, and welcomed as liberators.

November 2003, US military personel in Abu Graib prison begin torturing, raping, and killing prisoners.

June 2004, Rasul v. Bush. The first habeas corpus case regarding prisoners reaches the Supreme Court. The court rules prisoners have a right to hear the evidence against them and the chance to refute it. Bush sets up military commissions to try and keep control of the outcome of the trials.

July 2006, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, US Supreme Court rules that the executive branch does not have the authority to set up miltary commissions.

June 2008, Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court rules that prisoners at Guantanamo should have access to the US justice system.

September 2009, 6 years after the invasion, American troops are still struggling to control Iraq.

About 5,000 American troops have been killed in Iraq. About 45,000 to 90,000 American troops suffer from permanent traumatic brain injuries who will need assisstance for the rest of their lives. 500 American troops lost a limb. About 30,000 American troops have been diagnosed with mental health problems.

About 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed from military operations. About one million Iraqi civilians died as a result of criminal violence and civil war brought on by the US invasion. 4 million Iraqi civilians have been displaced from their homes. 2 million of them have fled the country.

About 1,000 prisoners went through Guantanamo. About 800 turned out to be completely innocent of any crime and were eventually released. Many were tortured during their imprisonment. A total of three convictions have been handed down. The rest of the prisoners remain in limbo.

It’s the 8 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember the scale of the attack, all the lives lost, all the tragedy. I think its because all the lives lost since, all the lives lost in the name of avenging 9/11, is overwhelming. The events since have created an even larger tragedy.

I can remember when I first heard about the attacks on 9/11. I was in my car, driving to work. The radio station was reporting that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. I remember that the initial report said it may have been an accident. There wasn’t a lot of information available. When the second plane hit about 15 minutes later, everyone knew it wasn’t an accident. I didn’t get a lot of work done that day. A lot of people were in a conference room watching the only TV that had an antenna. We watched images of the towers burning. An hour after the plane hit, one tower collapsed. An hour after that, the other tower collapsed. All I could think about was all the lives lost.

In the days following, 9/11 went from a tragedy to a rallying call for vengeance. The lives lost were forgotten and replaced with some form of “debt” that could only be paid in blood by someone else. America began to torture prisoners, rape them, kill them. America invaded Iraq wholly based on fabricated intelligence. Three thousand lives lost on 9/11 became overshadowed by five thousand American troops killed, fifty-thousand American troops with permanent brain injuries, and a million dead Iraqi civilians.

One can no longer think of the loss we suffered on 9/11 without thinking of the losses we inflicted on ourselves and the rest of the world in its name.

And that’s the biggest tragedy of all.

The CIA has refused to release further documents related to its controversial terrorist rendition, detention and interrogation programs, saying doing so would threaten national security.

In other words, they lawyered up and pled the fifth on the grounds that it would incriminate them.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?

Oh, if only they had given the thousands of innocent prisoners they tortured these very same rights.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090902/pl_afp/usattacksciaintelligenceprobe

excerpt:

In one of the cases mentioned, two women and three children were standing in front of their home after a soldier ordered them outside. At least three of them were holding pieces of white cloth when a soldier opened fire, killing two girls aged two and seven and wounding the third girl and their grandmother.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/200981335844986966.html

(that we know of)

Raymond Azar, a 45-year-old Lebanese construction manager with a grade school education, is employed by Sima International, a Lebanon-based contractor that does work for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also has the unlikely distinction of being the first target of a rendition carried out on the Obama watch.

And apparently, he was tortured in American custody.

I thought we all “learned our lesson” about torture? I thought we were never going to torture again? What about the international backlash that will endanger American lives?

Enough is enough. Release the photos. Prosecute the law breakers. Stop endangering American lives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/target-of-obama-era-rendi_n_256499.html

The US has a bunch of photos of prisoners held by Americans being tortured. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration are arguing that these photos cannot be released because they will create international backlash and cause terrorists to attack Americans.

Let’s assume for the moment, that this backlash argument is true. Let’s assume that these photos are never released. Let’s assume that the American Government is able to torture prisoners for years, including killing at least 100 of them, and are never prosecuted for those crimes.

Are we saying that these Americans who authorized, ordered, and executed the torturing of prisoners have learned their lessons? That they’ll never do it again? Are we saying that the US Government will never again overstep its bounds?

Because if the government did NOT learn it’s lesson, if the people who authorized, ordered, and executed the torture of prisoners are simply waiting to torture again, then doesn’t that mean there could be another torture incident? Maybe more photographs that will have to be suppressed because it will create an international backlash that could kill Americans?

Obama is currently working on a way transfer prisoners from Guantanamo but keeping them in a due-process-free zone identical to Guantanamo. He’s working on a way to imprison people without due process, who have not committed a crime, indefinitely and without recourse to law.

We still have massive domestic spying going on. We still have a massive chunk of rights ripped up and thrown to the ground.

And now Obama is looking to ramp up the military presence in Afghanistan, from 30,000 troops when he got into office to 120,000 by the end of his first year in office.

This is the same Afghanistan where CIA predator drones have repeatedly killed Afghan civilians, Afghan civilians at wedding parties. This is the same Afghanistan where Afghan General Abdul Rashid Dostum working with our military and paid by the CIA committed a massive attrocity of killing some 2,000 prisoners by suffocating them in container trucks.

Are we really saying that the US government will stop committing attrocities that will create international backlash? Are we really saying that these torture photos are the only ones we have to worry about?

If backlash is the true concern here, then the long view is that we must make sure that these incidents stop. Because if the US government continues to violate humanitarian laws and cause incidents that generate international backlash that threatens American lives, then we’re in for serious trouble in the long term.

And how do we make sure the US government does NOT commit more attrocities in the future? How do we prevent more backlash in the future? We have been given two options: (A) Bury the evidence or (B) Air the evidence and prosecute those who violated the law.

If we bury the evidence, that may reduce the backlash from that one particular incident. But it enboldens the government to continue its behaviour of law breaking. And if the US government continues to break humanitarian law in the future, then that can do nothing but create far more backlash than any single incident.

The alternative is to release the evidence and prosecute the law breakers. Make it known to future Americans that using the government’s power to commit attrocities will not be tolerated.

The “we must keep the photos secret to prevent international backlash and protect American lives” only works if you are short-sighted. It only works if you think the American Government has somehow “Learned its lesson”.

Tell me, has Dick Cheney learned his lesson? Has he had a change of heart? Has he shown regret and remorse for his hand in the torture of thousands of prisoners for years, many of whom were innocent?

I don’t think so.

In fact, it seems fairly apparent that Dick Cheney is trying to exert influence on the US government to get it to continue his lawless and inhumane methods. And Cheney isn’t the only one, just the most visible and the most cranky.

If we want to prevent international backlash and protect American lives, then we must think of the long-view of American behavior. Covering up this one attrocity and letting the criminals get away with breaking the law will only enable and encourage more law-breaking in the future, creating more attrocities, and creating more international backlash, endangering more lives.

If the Government were truly interested in saving American lives, they would publish all the photos and prosecute those who broke international law.

But the government isn’t interested in that at all. It’s interested in maintaining its power. Obama is interested in his own agenda and doesn’t want prosecutions to be a distraction. He wants to get reelected in 2012. Much lower on his priority is protecting American lives. And the neo-conservatives don’t give a damn about anything but themselves and their power. Like Cheney, they want to continue exerting their power and want nothing to be a restraint on their power, including an American public that would be aghast by their behaviour if it were revealed in the photos of their crimes.

Release the photos. Prosecute those who violated international law. Protect American lives.