Clipmarks | masbury's 'terrorism' clips

Yoo refuses to rule out "crushing a child's testicles"

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:28:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Or raping an infant to exert pressure on a terror suspect. Addington also evades.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

In several public fora heretofore, Yoo has insisted that no law -- neither domestic nor international -- prevents the president from authorizing the crushing of a child's testicles or the raping of an infant as a way of exerting pressure upon a terrorist suspect.

On December 1, 2005, Yoo notoriously contended in a public debate that the legality of crushing a child's testicles "depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that." Yesterday John Conyers tried to ask Yoo point-blank about that claim in that 2005 debate, namely whether Yoo still believes "that the President can order that a suspect's child be tortured in gruesome fashion."

Yoo's hemming and hawing around the question -- and his inability or refusal to say simply no, no, no -- spoke volumes. Addington evaded the question by telling committee members to consult their own in-house lawyers about such "legal opinions" and then refused to talk further about torture because "al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN."

Tags: terrorism, torture

FBI seeks infiltrators in Twin Cities

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:15:07 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: to show up at "vegan potlucks" and report back on pre-RNC-convention controversy

Clip Source: articles.citypages.com

U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day

Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“This is all part of a larger government effort to quell political dissent,” says Jordan Kushner

“The Joint Terrorism Task Force is another example of using the buzzword ‘terrorism’ as a basis to clamp down on people’s freedoms and push forward a more authoritarian government.”

Tags: fbi, freedom, politics, terrorism

Intriguing Global Incident Map

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:35:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Pinpoints worldwide events; reloads every 310 seconds

Clip Source: www.globalincidentmap.com

Terrorism Events and Other Suspicious Activity:

This page automatically reloads every 310 seconds Subscribe in a reader

Tags: geography, maps, foreign policy, terrorism

Childhood is dying in Iraq

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:04:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: .5M kids died during sanctions before 2003. 122k children died in 2005 alone.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

BAQUBA - Iraq’s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.

The United Nations estimated that half a million Iraqi children died during more than 12 years of economic sanctions that preceded the U.S. invasion of March 2003, primarily as a result of malnutrition and disease.

A report from the non-governmental relief organisation Save the Children shows Iraq continues to have the highest mortality for children under five. Since the first Gulf War, this has increased 150 percent. It is estimated that one in eight children in Iraq dies before the fifth birthday: 122,000 children died in 2005 alone. Iraq has a population of about 25 million.

UN Children’s Fund report

“at least two million Iraqi children lack adequate nutrition, according to the World Food Programme assessment of food insecurity in 2006, and face a range of other threats including interrupted education, lack of immunisation services and diarrhoea diseases.”

Tags: politics, foreign policy, iraq, terrorism

Former DIA Director: Bush veto of anti-torture bill "a mistake"

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:11:31 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "good interrogators don't need those techniques"- DIA agent laughed "at the idea that anyone would be so incompetent as to use any of these [torture] techniques." Rebukes Perino and would fire McConnell (Dir. Natl Intel) - Retired Army Lt General Harry E Soyster, Director of Defense Intelligence Agency during Desert Shield/Storm

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

called Bush’s veto a “mistake”:

I think that he will be sending an unclear message to the troops.

if Mike McConnell worked for me, I’d fire him. That is one of the weakest arguments. The Army has a lot of good training, 10-, 18-week courses at the school. And many of our interrogators have been in the Army for 28 years. They’re not 18-year old kids. […]

And the idea, in fact, these techniques [used by] the experts at the CIA — waterboarding, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, whatever those techniques are — it doesn’t take much expertise to use those. You know, dumb guys in the Middle Ages were doing the same thing. The KGB were strong on sleep deprivation. So there’s no skill required from the CIA.

experts who had worked

at the DIA laughed “at the idea that anyone would be so incompetent as to have to use any of these [torture] techniques.” Many interrogators, in fact, don’t even go to the extend that the Field Manual authorizes, “because good interrogators don’t need those techniques.”

Tags: torture, politics, terrorism

"Kangaroo Court" to try Gitmo detainees

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:09:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "constitutionally dubious legal proceeding"

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The decision to use Mohammed and the others as guinea-pigs in a constitutionally dubious legal proceeding is likely to trigger a firestorm of anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world and spark a fractious domestic debate in an already highly charged presidential election year.

“What we are looking at is a series of show trials by the Bush administration that are really devoid of any due process considerations,” said Vincent Warren, the executive director head of Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents many Guantanamo detainees. “Rather than playing politics the Bush administration should be seeking speedy and fair trials,” he said. “These are trials that are going to be based on torture as confessions as well as secret evidence. There is no way that this can be said to be fair especially as the death penalty could be an outcome.”

Tags: gitmo, trial, terrorism

Anti-"Islamo-Fascism" week features pure BS

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:14:23 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Ann Coulter among speakers set to enlighten female professors

Clip Source: ehrenreich.blogs.com

Halloween is a piece of pumpkin cake compared to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which commences today.

According to the Week’s website, feminists, and particularly the women’s studies professors among them, have developed a masochistic fondness for Islamic fundamentalist.

klaxons didn’t go off for me until I skimmed down the list of Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week speakers and found, incredibly enough, Ann Coulter, whom I last caught on TV pining for the repeal of women’s suffrage.

Another participant in the week’s events is former senator Rick Santorum, whose book It Takes a Family blamed “radical feminism” for pushing women into the workforce and thus destroying the American family.

Yes, feminists tend to hate war and sometimes even guns, and this may be why Horowitz and company hate us. They should know, though, that we especially hate a war that seems calculated to inflame Islamic fundamentalism world wide.

Tags: islamo-fascism, ehrenreich, ann coulter, war on terror, terrorism

Ben Gurion: We are the aggressors

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:11:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: An astonishing admission from one of Israel's early leaders

Clip Source: ressentiment.blogspot.com

Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. - David Ben Gurion

Tags: israel, zionism, palestinians, war on terror, middle east, terrorism

Petraeus: "I don't know" if war is making us safer

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:59:05 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Commanding General does not know if war helps US security.

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

But the most stunning exchange of the day came on a question from Republican John Warner, one of the Senate's elder statesmen on military matters. The Chicago Tribune reported:

Warner concluded with a question: "Are you able to say at this time, if we continue what you have laid before the Congress here as a strategy, do you feel that that is making America safer?"

Petraeus said the strategy was the best course for achieving U.S. objectives in Iraq.

"Does that make America safer?" pushed Warner.

Said Petraeus, "Sir, I don't know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted it out in my own mind."

Petraeus' response to one of the most fundamental questions for the American people about the war in Iraq—does this war make us safer—was "I don't know." Every day, young Americans are being asked to risk and give their lives for a policy that the commanding general can't say is making America safer. Extraordinary.

Tags: petraeus, john warner, iraq, terrorism, war on terror

"Clash of Civilizations" questionable

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:57:44 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: If the Right can sell the "Clash", we'll be at war for decades

Clip Source: www.counterpunch.org

Samuel Huntington's concept of a clash of civilizations has expanded its intellectual appeal

This force is nourished by the desire of Muslims for real freedom from the increasing political domination over the Islamic peoples by Western (Christian and Jewish) parts of the world. The principal Islamic motivation has little to do with "hatred of our freedoms."

Supporters of the concept that the "clash" is a significant part of the present global political system seem to suggest that the very existence of the clash makes unjust, oppressive treatment of Islamic people somehow acceptable. But we should point out that the existence of a real clash is questionable, and that in any case injustice and oppression are never acceptable.

in this increasingly globalized world the importance of nationalism is beginning to fade. All of us should begin thinking much more about what are the best policies for the entire world to pursue, not what are the best policies for their own nations.

Tags: clash of civilizations, terrorism, war on terror, iraq, israel, iran, nationalism, foreign policy

Bush's America: LESS Safe, LESS Free.

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:43:34 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: In a new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11.

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11

"While the 'preventive paradigm' can point to few gains in our security, it has come at great cost to our ideals. In the name of preemptive security, the administration has undertaken torture, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary renditions, disappearances into CIA 'black sites,' warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, and an illegal and disastrous war in Iraq."

have compromised the most basic commitments of the rule of law

have actually impeded our efforts to bring known terrorists to trial, limited our long-term options for security, sparked anti-American resentment and terrorist recruitment, and undermined relations even with our closest allies

has garnered few terrorists and actually made us less safe

treat the rule of law as an asset

Tags: usa, terrorism, war

Nixon, Johnson, and Bush saying the same things

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:59:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: From "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits keep spinning us to death"

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Withdrawal of all American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Vietnam would bring an end to conflict.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We're not leaving, so long as I’m the President. That would be a huge mistake.

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Our allies would lose confidence in America.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: To yield to force in Vietnam would weaken that confidence.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Any sign that says we're going to leave before the job is done simply emboldens terrorists.

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: A retreat of the United States from Vietnam would be a communist victory, a victory of massive proportions and would lead to World War III.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: If this little nation goes down the drain and can't maintain independence, ask yourself what's going to happen to all the other little nations.

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: It would not bring peace. It would bring more war.

Tags: war, iraq, military, politics, terrorism, bloodbath

Origins of Terror: Cost and Consequences of US Foreign Policy

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:06:08 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Pretty powerful 2-minute collection of historic video clips

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

[Video]

Tags: war, foreign policy, terrorism, iraq, guatemala, chile, nicaragua

The real lesson of Vietnam

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:06:31 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Quote from historian Gareth Porter on what we should have learned

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Richard Nixon used the threat of a bloodbath in Vietnam as the primary argument for continuing that war for four more years after he came to power in 1969.

Had Nixon listened to the antiwar movement and the American people by 1969 and ended that war, there would not have been the overthrow of Norodom Sihanouk in 1970. There would not have been the extension of the war into Cambodia. There would not have been the rise of the Khmer Rouge. When Sihanouk was overthrown, we tend to forget that the Khmer Rouge was really an insignificant movement. They were about 2,500 or 3,000 very poorly armed soldiers or guerillas. And it was really the extension of the Vietnam War into Cambodia which made the Khmer Rouge the powerful movement that they were.

the lesson of Vietnam that we should be hearing, which we should have heard for the last three decades, but we haven’t, is that government officials in the White House simply do not pay attention to the real consequences of the wars that they wage.

Tags: vietnam, war, terrorism, iraq, bush, peace, politics

Stop-and-search odds of finding a UK terrorist

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:09:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: See article for more statistical analysis

Clip Source: www.randomcrud.com

we’re down to maybe 1,000,000 people that the police can stop and search. Using the same methodology as before, the chance of a random stop and search finding a terrorist is now 0.0001%, and on average you’d turn up one terrorist per 700,000 random searches. Of course, these figures are massively optimistic.

But what are 700,000 random searches in perspective? In 2004, there were 697,317 stop and searches in the UK. In 2005, there were 807,616.

In other words, in order to catch 1 terrorist per year using racially profiled random stop and searches, even using implausibly optimistic assumptions, the UK would need to put in at least as much effort into them as it put into all stop-and-search police of all other crimes combined.⁴

Tags: terrorism, terrorists, war on terror, privacy