Clipmarks | masbury's 'war on terror' clips

Ten conservative myths about national security

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:42:42 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Here's the list; see them debunked at the link

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

1. "Islamofascism" is America's biggest national security threat.

2. We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

3. Military solutions are the only effective national security solutions.

4. But -- what we're doing is working! After all, we haven't had another 9/11…

5. Everybody knows that "law enforcement" approaches to terrorism don't work.

6. We don't need allies: we can do this on our own. Besides, moral authority doesn't matter when you have superior firepower.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

7. Negotiating with "irrational" dictators is pointless, and a sign of weakness.

8. Government spending on national security is different than pork-barrel spending on other programs.

9. Airport security is a critical part of our anti-terrorism effort.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

10. It's always necessary to give up our civil liberties in a time of war.

The Declaration and the Constitution are the defining documents of our country

If we abandon those ideals, we will simply cease to be American

and

lose the chance of ever restoring America again

Tags: war on terror, constitution, conservative, security

Why more troops won't help Afghanistan

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:16:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: The nature of the conflict has changed from regional to a nation-wide warlord/Taliban alliance fueled by a separate and huge opium-poppy economy. This is what the Soviets failed to defeat, despite massive infusions of blood and capital.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

The nature of the war in Afghanistan is changing, though, and it is not the sheer numbers that coun

Beyond the Taliban, local alliances between warlords and former

mujahideen commanders

have added a fresh dimension

They had been lured into the American camp through various inducements, including jobs, monetary benefits and the opportunity to take part in politics. It was considered better to have them fighting in parliament than on the battlefield.

once the Taliban insurgency took firm root in the south the writ of the government evaporated and the peasants were allowed and encouraged to grow poppy. By 2007, a parallel economy flourished and, finding the riches irresistible, former warlords, tribal chiefs, clerics and other segments of society sided with the Taliban.

The indications are that NATO wants to tackle the problem by pouring in troops

could help secure arteries, but as the Soviets - who in the 1980s had more than double the NATO number of troops - learned, it's not size that matters

Tags: afghanistan, war on terror

USAF study: Invading Iran "negative" for USA

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:08:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Urges patience, engagement, toning down policy statements

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

a major study produced for the U.S. Air Force by a top defense think tank concluded that U.S. military action against Iran was "likely to have negative effects for the United States".

Entitled "Iran's Political, Demographic, and Economic Vulnerabilities," the 156-page report also called for Washington to "tone down" its policy statements supporting "regime change" and to "discourage Iranian ethnic groups from revolting against the regime". Both policies, it said, are likely to be counter-productive.

Instead, according to the three main authors of the study, Washington should adopt a more patient approach, "designed to create conditions for effective relations (with Tehran) over the long haul."

the RAND study bolsters those who favor engagement with Iran, even as it also supports the maintenance of certain kinds of sanctions, notably the embargo on certain high-tech gas liquefaction technologies, as a bargaining chip for future negotiations with Tehran

Tags: iran, war on terror

Al Qaeda stronger since 9/11; war makes it worse

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:24:01 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: War makes them heroes, Rand report says. United police action would make them criminals.
Used to be that anybody who said war wasn't the best answer was thought to be soft on terrorism. What we need to learn is that war doesn't work.

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

The Bush administration's terrorism-fighting strategy has not significantly undermined al-Qaeda's capabilities, according to a major new study that argues the struggle against terrorism is better waged by law enforcement agencies than by armies.

The study by the nonpartisan Rand Corp. also contends that the administration committed a fundamental error in portraying the conflict with al-Qaeda as a "war on terrorism." The phrase falsely suggests that there can be a battlefield solution to terrorism, and symbolically conveys warrior status on terrorists, it said.

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors,"

the thousands upon thousands of lives lost in this conflict -- and not just those of U.S. forces and those killed by U.S. forces, but also those killed by continued terrorist attacks

Al-Qaeda is "strong and competent," and has succeeded in carrying out more violent attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, than in all of its previous history.

Tags: war on terror

Former Iraq Prime Minister: Surge failed primary objective

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:15:48 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Some military success, but failure at the main objectives, and "soon you will have reversals." This is what we've been saying all along: the main objective of the surge was reconciliation, and when that mission failed, it was replaced by "reduction in violence" as the measure of success.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Former Iraqi P.M. Says Surge Not So Great

Ayad Allawi, Iraq's former prime minister

before members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday

asked by Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the subcommittee's ranking member, for Allawi's "assessment of of what's come of the surge,"

Reminding Rohrabacher that the original objective of the surge was to create a safe environment for a process of national reconciliation, Allawi said, "Now, militarily, the surge has achieved some of its goals. Politically, I don't think so."

Allawi rattled off a laundry list of perils that still confront the Iraqi people

"So, if you measure the surge from a military point of view, it has succeeded," Allawi said. "But I don't think this was the [prime] objective, because soon you will have reversals. Security has not prevailed, and the key element in security is reconciliation, and building national institutions for the country. If this does not happen, then the surge will go in vain."

Tags: surge, war on terror, iraq

White House used FoxNews to shape public opinion

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:48:27 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Hannity, O'Reilly implicated. "Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow point out that in the US, the government is forbidden to propagandize the public. Fox Cable News head Roger Ailes (a former Republican Party official) and other high executives routinely sent memos to the newsrooms instructing them to spin stories in particular ways"

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

Scott McClellan admits on Hardball that the White House fed Fox News hosts talking points. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow point out that in the US, the government is forbidden to propagandize the public.

It has long been known that Fox Cable News head Roger Ailes (a former Republican Party official) and other high executives routinely sent memos to the newsrooms instructing them to spin stories in particular ways. And one always suspected that the talking points actually came over from Bush's and Cheney's offices. Now McClellan confirms it.

[Video]

Tags: foxnews, media, war on terror, bush

McCain: "We were greeted as liberators" in Iraq

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:47:17 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Eeyow! Bad enough that neocons' judgment was so poor as to predict we would be greeted as liberators (I believe it was Wolfowitz), here's McCain "remembering" that we supposedly WERE greeted as liberators in Iraq.
No wonder we keep getting into these wars!
Don't you dare, McCain-ites, don't you dare try to spin this into truth!
Also, McCain says Obama has "a pretty good timetable" on Friday, then denies he used the word "timetable" on Sunday.
What's happening here?

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

“I think it’s a pretty good timetable,” McCain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday.

“I didn’t use the word timetable,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview airing today:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You shouldn’t have used the word timetable.

MCCAIN: I didn’t use the word timetable. That I did — if I did…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, it’s a pretty good timetable.

MCCAIN: Oh, well, look. Anything is a good timetable that is dictated by conditions on the ground. Anything is good.

Later in the interview, McCain claimed he was right in his pre-war prediction that America would be “greeted as liberators.” “We were greeted as liberators,” McCain insisted. Watch it:

[Video]

Tags: mccain, timetable, war on terror

Gitmo defense: What's the point?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:11:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: If proven guilty, he's jailed at Gitmo. If acquitted, prosecutors admit, he's jailed at Gitmo.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Defense attorney Jon Jackson criticized the proceedings because Hamdan could still be jailed, no matter the trial’s outcome.

Jon Jackson: “Mr. Hamdan or any accused at Guantanamo, but for right now, Mr. Hamdan, if he is convicted, he will stay at Guantanamo Bay. If he is acquitted completely, he’ll stay at Guantanamo Bay. And if he’s convicted and he gets, let’s say, time served, he’s going to stay at Guantanamo Bay, because the government has stated, through their prosecutor, Mr. Murphy, that regardless of what outcome in this case, they’re allowed to detain Mr. Hamdan for the duration of the global war on terrorism.”

The military judge has already ruled prosecutors cannot rely on certain statements from Hamdan, because they were made under coercion from US interrogators in Afghanistan.

Tags: gitmo, war on terror

In Gitmo for giving a bad grade to a student

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:44:15 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: What the CIA told the Bush Admin in 2002

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: Jane Mayer, you also report that back in 2002, the CIA warned that up to a third of the prisoners at Guantanamo may have been imprisoned by mistake.

JANE MAYER: Isn’t that—to me, this is one of the amazing anecdotes

It’s not the ACLU. It’s not, you know, some kind of outside human rights group. It’s the CIA

the CIA sent a particular expert down to Guantanamo in the summer of 2002 to figure out what’s going on. Why are we not getting better intelligence out of these detainees

he came back saying, “Bad news. The reason we’re not getting better intelligence,

is that about a third of the people are innocent.” From what he could tell, they were just mistakes.

AMY GOODMAN: Mistake, like, for example, bounty hunters.

JANE MAYER: Right, sure. Bounty hunters

and people who were put—there

because of personal grudges

one detainee

had been a teacher of somebody and given them a bad grade, and the person that he’d flunked pointed him out as a terrorist, and he was rounded up.

Tags: war on terror, war crimes, gitmo, bush

CIA to Bush in 2002: 1/3 of Gitmos imprisoned by mistake

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:52:51 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: CIA analyst concluded many were bystanders "swept up in dragnets or turned over to the US military by bounty hunters"

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Report: In 2002 CIA Warned 1/3 of Gitmo Prisoners Were Innocent

Jane Mayer also reveals that the Bush administration ignored warnings from the CIA six years ago that up to a third of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake. In 2002, a CIA analyst concluded that many of the prisoners were essentially bystanders who had been swept up in dragnets or turned over to the US military by bounty hunters. Mayer also reveals that the CIA is investigating whether its agents kidnapped at least six innocent men and held them in secret prisons as part of the agency’s extraordinary rendition program. Only one of the cases—that of Khalid El-Masri—has ever come to light.

Tags: gitmo, war on terror, bush

Is sleep deprivation torture?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:56:13 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Menachen Begin tells of getting it from the KGB. From the Wikipedia entry.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Torture

Sleep deprivation is used as an interrogation technique (for example, in Pinochet-era Chile^{[citation needed]}, the Soviet Union, or by the US on Guantanamo-held prisoners^[23]).^[24] Interrogation victims are kept awake for several days; when they are finally allowed to fall asleep, they are suddenly awakened and questioned. Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister from 1977-83 described his experience of sleep deprivation when a prisoner of the KGB in Russia as follows:

In the head of the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep...Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.

In rats, prolonged, complete sleep deprivation increases both food intake and energy expenditure, leading to weight loss and, ultimately, death.^[26

cruel, inhumane and degrading. If used for prolonged periods of time it is torture."^[24]

Tags: torture, gitmo, war on terror

Air Force Judiciary chief: Gitmo trials "not justice"

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:51:17 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: “If you’re going to wrap this under the banner of military justice, then it needs to be a fair trial,” Col. Davis said. “What’s taking place now, I would call neither military nor justice.” - former Chief Guatanamo Prosecutor Col. Morris Davis, who resigned his position in protest over political interference from the Bush administration last year

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: Except the CIA is saying that perhaps up to a third have been held mistakenly, not even enemy combatants, as Bush has defined it.

COL. MORRIS DAVIS: Right. And that, I’ll agree with. I mean, I—I guess I drank the Kool-Aid on that one, as well, believing that the CSRT process and the administrative review boards were a robust process where the individuals did get, you know, a significant look at whether they were being properly detained

I think they’re entitled to meaningful review, and if they’re prosecuted before a military commission, I think they’re entitled to a fair trial. And I think both of those things, at this point in time, are doubtful.

Waterboarding, to me, was a no-brainer. If you’re tying someone down and inducing them to believe they can either talk or possibly die, what they said

has no place in an American court of justice

“What’s taking place now, I would call neither military nor justice.”

Tags: gitmo, justice, news, politics, war on terror

AT&T Whistleblower lobbies against FISA immunity

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:59:55 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: But gets cold shoulder from Democrats; no shoulder at all from Repubs

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Mark Klein, former technician at AT&T for over twenty-two years. He discovered that internet traffic in AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the National Security Agency. Klein is a witness in a lawsuit filed against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which alleges AT&T illegally gave the NSA access to its networks.

we were told one day in late 2002 that an NSA representative was coming to the office to speak to a certain management technician about a special job. And this turned out to be installing a secret room in the next office I was going to be in the following year

in 2003 I was assigned to that office, and I got hold of the documents which were available—they’re not classified—

They were basically copying the entire data stream going across critical internet cables and copying the entire data stream to this secret room, so the NSA was getting everything.

This bill

would kill any hope of finding out what happened by the lawsuits against AT&T

Tags: nsa, war on terror, fisa

"Stability" in Iraq revives the "good war" myth

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:38:13 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: We can't bring justice to Iraq by continuing to force ourselves on it. We ARE the injustice.

Clip Source: files.tikkun.org

the Republicans wield another symbol of America as a righteous winner: the goal of achieving "stability" in Iraq. It may be the most seductive image of all, because it exerts a strong appeal across the political spectrum

War -- righteous, courageous, and ultimately victorious -- has always been a central theme in the American myth of stability

If Democrats and war critics go on the counterattack against the surge success story, they will keep that mythic drama on center stage in the theater

McCain's campaign survives, and thrives, only by

relying on its mastery of a language of American identity centered on the symbolism of an American "good war." Any debate about military success in Iraq, however contentious, keeps his strong suit in the spotlight.

The Democrats, however, can turn

by refusing to treat the issue of military success or failure as the central question of the moment

And we can begin to heal from our moral bankruptcy, not to mention our impending financial one.

Tags: war on terror, iraq

Bush: those who disagree with him "slander America"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:47:12 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: How very, very cheap - taking those who disagree with HIM and labeling them slanderers of AMERICA. He attempts to manipulate people who want to be patriotic into sitting down, shutting up, and asking no questions about his abuse of power, so he can do whatever he wants with their money.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

BOULTON: There are those who would say look, lets take Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, and rendition and all those things and to them that is the complete opposite of freedom.

BUSH: Of course, if you want to slander America.

a short — but by no means exhaustive — list of those who have

slandered America:

– The United States Supreme Court: The Court ruled last week that “terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to seek their release in federal court” saying that Bush’s policy compromised “the Constitution’s guarantee of liberty.”

– McClatchy Newspapers:

the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned “perhaps hundreds” of men “in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.”

– The Federal Bureau of Investigation:

according to its agents, “[m]ilitary officials at Guantanamo Bay used some aggressive techniques before they were approved, possibly in violation of Defense Department policy and U.S. law.”

Tags: bush, gitmo, war on terror