Category: Terra Terra Terra!

Dershowitz still an asshole

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Annual John Gandel Symposium - The Middle East

Dear Lord, these people are astoundingly resistant to introspection. Via the Sideshow:

Here’s an astonishing piece of crap from Alan Dershowitz:

As far as Greenwald is concerned, he’s an ideologue. I don’t think he would have revealed this information if it had been critical of Venezuela or Cuba or the Palestinian Authority. You know, he doesn’t like America. He doesn’t like Western democracies. He’s never met a terrorist he didn’t like. So he’s a very hard-left ideologue that uses this to serve his political agenda not simply to reveal information in a neutral way. That makes him very different from WikiLeaks, I think.

I love the idea that (a) a concerned citizen should be criticizing other countries when their own government is clearly violating the rights of its citizens and (b) when you know the most powerful country in the world is committing egregious crimes and atrocities, you should aim all of your criticisms at Venezuela. Because they are so much more of a threat to the world, I guess. It’s like saying that Germans during the rise of the Third Reich should have been pointing with alarm at Ecuador or something.

H/t Steve Duckett

‘The torture is for the torture’

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Witness Torture Rally

Shaker Aamer is the last British resident in Guantanamo Bay, and writes about his torturous treatment. But this is the part that jumped out at me:

I met the new doctor. He is no different than any of the other doctors – different dancer, same club. He certainly dances to the same tune as his predecessors. He came to see me recently. It was even the same song. “I am your new doctor. If you need any help, ask for me.” I told him he is not a doctor but a tool in the colonel’s hand. He said, “No I am not.” So I said I would give him a little test. I reminded him of my arthritis and rheumatism, and said I needed a blanket to keep out the air conditioning that they run so cold here. He said, “That is not my job, I am here to give you medication.” I told him that a real doctor would care about my health, not just give me pills. But he did not want to listen, and he left.

They are not doctors, they are navy personnel; they follow orders, not their medical ethics. The system is for the system. The torture is for the torture.

Clemency for Edward Snowden

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

IMG_0959-1 Wall Art
The NYT editorialized about Snowden yesterday, saying he deserved a much lighter punishment in light of his whistleblower status. The Atlantic responds to pushback from Business Insider’s Josh Barro:

Where this goes wrong is imagining that a plea bargain or some form of clemency (or even a presidential pardon) for Snowden would set a precedent or legitimize a general rule of any kind. It would not. The concepts of pardon and clemency are part our system precisely because there are instances when applying rules we’ve generally decided upon would be unjust and counterproductive. They are meant to be used judiciously, on an ad hoc basis, in what are clearly exceptional circumstances.

Snowden’s leak meets those tests. Urging clemency for Snowden is not a radical case against our existing system of rules–it is an acknowledgment that, like all rules, ours are imperfect. One of the finest presidents, George Washington, pardoned farmers who took up arms against the federal government (!) to protest a tax on whiskey. He wouldn’t have granted those pardons had he thought that he was making a radical case against the legitimacy of the U.S. government or setting a precedent for anti-tax insurrections. And it is difficult to argue that any such precedent was set, even at the dawn of the federal republic when norms were still being established.
Continue reading “Clemency for Edward Snowden” →

Another reason why drones are immoral

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Drone with Hellfire Missiles Flying at Sunset.
One of the many reasons I detest drones is the moral remove they provide to those who order their use. When you’re a politician or a general, it’s very easy to detach yourself from what happens from an eye in the sky (unlike the people who have to witness the results), which is what makes it such a dangerous tool. Read this to learn about the effects on the operators:

Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I’d start with: “How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?” And: “How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?” Or even more pointedly: “How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?”

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from mosque.

The US and British militaries insist that this is such an expert program, but it’s curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAVs. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is a far cry from clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited clouds and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: “The feed is so pixelated, what if it’s a shovel, and not a weapon?” I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian’s life all because of a bad image or angle.

Do you believe this guy?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Even though, of course, it hasn’t worked and is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment:

Federal Judge Rules NSA Metadata Collection Legal (via slashdot)

A federal judge in New York has ruled that the National Security Agency (NSA) has the legal right to collect metadata on phone calls made within the United States. In so doing, Judge William H. Pauley III of the U.S. District Court for the Southern…

Continue reading “Do you believe this guy?” →

Homeland

~ susie

“Showtime indeed!” / SML.20121230.IP3.Lifelog.Showtime.Homeland.Season.2

I don’t know how many of you watch the HBO series “Homeland,” but it started off well. It was a nuanced look at the war on terror, it showed that people had actual reasons for terrorism — other than a mindless hatred of non-Muslims. Muslims weren’t presented as monsters, which was refreshing.

And then it degenerated. It was a show I enjoyed watching, but the past two seasons have devolved almost into the kind of terror porn that marked “24,” the series that many soldiers cited as an inspiration to torture prisoners. (Which is only predictable, because “Homeland” and “24” have the same producers.)

At this point, I’m hate-watching. This season (with only one or two exceptions) was a parade of one hackneyed, over-the-top scenario after another. I don’t think I’ll watch it again.

There goes that argument

~ susie

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Remember, senators are hardly allowed to say anything at all about what they know. So we need to support the ones who stand up and criticize the intelligence establishment, because the NSA needs to be reigned in:

WASHINGTON — Colorado Sen. Mark Udall (D) said on Sunday that any arguments against reform of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs crumbled this past week, following the release of a White House report that criticized the programs and a judge’s ruling that questioned their constitutionality. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Udall said, “The arguments for the status quo fell apart this week in Washington.”

“It’s now time to really fundamentally reform the way in which the NSA operates,” he said.

Udall pointed to the 46 recommendations contained in the White House panel’s report. They include the establishment of an independent privacy panel, the presence of public advocates at secret surveillance court hearings, and better protections for whistleblowers.

Also this week, a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s massive telephone metadata dragnet is likely unconstitutional because it violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden earlier this year revealed that the spy agency collects information on tens of millions of phone calls by private citizens worldwide.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Udall has long been aware of the NSA’s surveillance programs, but until Snowden made the highly classified programs public, Udall was forbidden to discuss them. Nevertheless, he said he feels like he has “been shouting from the wilderness” for years about the NSA violations of privacy.