Monday, April 23, 2007

Soviet Style Journalism lives on.

New York times had this story on the front page:

In one of the new joint American-Iraqi security stations in the capital this month, in the volatile Ghazaliya neighborhood, Capt. Darren Fowler was heaping praise on his Iraqi counterparts for helping capture three insurgent suspects who had provided information he believed would save American lives.

“The detainee gave us names from the highest to the lowest,” Captain Fowler told the Iraqi soldiers. “He showed us their safe houses, where they store weapons and I.E.D.’s and where they keep kidnap victims, how they get weapons, where weapons come from, how they place I.E.D.’s, attack us and go away. Because you detained this guy this is the first intelligence linking everything together. Good job. Very good job.”

The Iraqi officers beamed. What the Americans did not know and what the Iraqis had not told them was that before handing over the detainees to the Americans, the Iraqi soldiers had beaten one of them in front of the other two, the Iraqis said. The stripes on the detainee’s back, which appeared to be the product of a whipping with electrical cables, were later shown briefly to a photographer, who was not allowed to take a picture.

To the Iraqi soldiers, the treatment was normal and necessary. They were proud of their technique and proud to have helped the Americans.

“I prepared him for the Americans and let them take his confession,” Capt. Bassim Hassan said through an interpreter. “We know how to make them talk. We know their back streets. We beat them. I don’t beat them that much, but enough so he feels the pain and it makes him desperate.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/world/middleeast/22detain.html



Doesn't the "they were proud of their technique and proud to have helped the Americans" remind you of the Soviet Union Journalism where every one was proud to help to bring glory to the mother land and the USSR!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

How it works...

In the 80s President Reagan started the budget cuts on social services including mental health services to pay for the his Star Wars and for "re-arming America" project. Now President Bush's Radio Address says:

We can never fully understand what would cause a student to take the lives of 32 innocent people. What we do know is that this was a deeply troubled young man -- and there were many warning signs. Our society continues to wrestle with the question of how to handle individuals whose mental health problems can make them a danger to themselves and to others.

Colleges and state and local officials are now confronting these issues, and the Federal government will help. I've asked top officials at the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services to provide the Virginia Tech community with whatever assistance we can, and to participate in a review of the broader questions raised by this tragedy.

I have directed these officials to travel to communities across our Nation, to meet with educators, mental health experts, and state and local officials. I have asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, to summarize what they learn and report back to me with recommendations about how we can help to avoid such tragedies.


http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070420-2.html

...."report back to me with recommendations about how we can help to avoid such tragedies", Right! Just don't hold your breath to see any thing meaningful to come out of the report.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Karl Rove and the new justification for Iraq!

In "2007 Lincoln Day Dinner program" Karl Rove makes yet another connection to Bin Ladin and need to stay in Iraq.

Essentially he says that if US leaves Iraq, it would be a victory for Bin Ladin which soon would translate into a Khalifat system, headed by Bin Ladin, that would rule people all over Arab world and North Africa.

Paranoia aside this is interesting in that

  • Karl Rove see US as guardian of others, as if they are minors. You would think if the people in the Arab world and North Africa want to live under Bin Ladin's Khalifat then US wont be able to stop them anyways, and if they are not interested in Khalifat system, then they would resist Bin Ladin just as they are resisting US occupation. Either way it is none of Karl Rove's business.


  • If after Bin Ladin is so dangerous and powerful how come Bush administration hasn't been able to capture or kill him? Doesn't that speak volume about the incompetence of the Bush administration?



You can watch the program in 2007 Lincoln Day Dinner program

Wednesday, April 11, 2007