Which is more likely, that the bodies of an estimated 500-800 Al Quaeda supposedly killed by our military vanished into thin air, or that our government is full of shit? Amazingly, the brilliant success and firefight reported by the US Military at Shahikot has resulted in a paltry handful of actual dead ‘terrorists’. The US killed more people crashing helicopters in the past few weeks than they have the phantasmic Al Quaeda.
16
Mar 02
Dangerous Legal Precedent
Using secret evidence destroys protections guaranteed by the Constitution. The PATRIOT Act authorizes broader use of secret evidence:
“The case in federal court in Chicago appears to be the first time the government has tried to use secret evidence–which would be shared with the judge but not with the charity or its attorneys–under a provision of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act signed in October by President Bush, legal experts said. …
Roger Simmons, an attorney for Global Relief, said the use of secret evidence to fight the charity’s lawsuit was “a very dangerous legal precedent.” On Thursday, Simmons asked the court to reject the government’s plan.
“It’s completely contrary to anything that’s ever happened in this country,” he said. “The country was founded on the idea of confronting your accuser. If they submit secret evidence or present it to the judge in such a way that we can never see it, we can’t cross-examine and we can never rebut,” he said.
Members of Congress have attempted several times to make the use of secret evidence illegal, and Bush said he would support such a law, but those efforts died after Sept. 11.
16
Mar 02
No One Remembers
Fifty-seven years ago, before the crimes at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the US firebombed Tokyo killing an estimated 100,000 civilians. A little later, the US went on to win the distinction of being the only government in history that has used atomic weapons against human beings. Our government is worse than the worst serial killer or terrorist. At its best it’s dishonest and corrupt and at its worst it’s organized genocide and institutionalized criminality.
Of course, war crimes and megadeaths are permissable if you are the victor.
“Until the San Francisco Treaty in 1952, Japan was under control of the occupation forces, and when they arrived, they applied media restrictions, saying that one should not report things which reflected negatively on the United States,” said Shinichi Arai, a historian who has written a comparison of European and Japanese civilian bombing. Later, as the country formed a close alliance with the United States, he said, “we were too busy trying to rebuild our country, and trying to forget the past.” …
For Americans, it would raise questions about the prosecution of the war according to standards that Washington had long denounced as inhuman. “With the firebombings, we crossed the line that we had said was clearly beyond the pale of civilization,” said John Dower, a leading American historian of Japan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The American reaction at the time was that they deserved it. There was almost a genocidal attitude on the part of the American military, and it extended to the American public.”
16
Mar 02
CIA Anthrax
From a BBC tv program, the anthrax deaths as a CIA operation gone awry.
“A Newsnight investigation raised the possibility that there was a secret CIA project to investigate methods of sending anthrax through the mail which went madly out of control.
The shocking assertion is that a key member of the covert operation may have removed, refined and eventually posted weapons-grade anthrax which killed five people.
In the wake of Sept 11th, the anthrax attacks caused panic throughout the States and around the world. But has the FBI found the whole case too hot to handle?
15
Mar 02
US Government Kidnappers
The U.S. Government is using US-registered Gulfstream V jets to secretly transport dozens of people suspected of links to terrorists to countries other than the United States, bypassing extradition procedures and legal formalities. The same type of jets which secretly flew into Queenstown airport last Saturday putting that community in a spin over clandestine CIA activities. Maree Howard writes.
According to Scoop’s intelligence sources the CIA is plucking people with suspected terrorist links from countries such as Indonesia and transporting them to other countries where they can be subjected to interrogation tactics – including torture and threats to their families – that are illegal in the U.S.
In some cases U.S. intelligence agents remain closely involved in the interrogation.
15
Mar 02
Cheney’s Cave
From December 2001: Cheney’s hiding in a cave, too….in Pennsylvania. Via Cryptome.org.
WAYNESBORO, Pa.–Three hours after Osama bin Laden turned the Pentagon into a disaster area, five helicopters touched down a few hundred yards from Hal Neill’s house at the base of Raven Rock Mountain along the Pennsylvania-Maryland border.
Within minutes, a convoy of SUVs with black-tinted windows zoomed up Harbaugh Valley Road, turned left, and deposited the weight of the free world inside Site R, the inexplicably named city-in-a-mountain from which the Pentagon has operated and, from all indications Vice President Cheney has directed his office in the days since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Site R, with its six-stories of underground offices, a subterranean water reservoir, and banks of mysterious antennas, dishes and massive, steel doors, has been a designated backup command center since it was hewn out of the mountain in 1951.
For decades, Site R’s presence was a village secret, barely acknowledged to outsiders and attracting little outside interest in turn.
”There are four entrances, but I’ve only ever been able to find three of them,” said Neill, as he stood in his back yard, looking over at the guard station next to two oversize metal doors in the hillside. Six military men in sweatsuits jogged their way down the driveway and back up again.
”They weren’t doing that before the attacks,” Neill said. ”Now they’re working out.”
The tidy equilibrium of rural life has been upended. ”Day and night, you hear the airplanes,” said Bonnie Wolfe, whose model railroad shop sits below the flight path of the military jets and helicopters that intermittently pass by, usually unseen, inevitably heard.
- Pictures of Site R – Raven Rock Some of the snake holes they hide in.
- Cold War Infrastructure
- Underground base and tunnel links. Very interesting.
15
Mar 02
Courts Ok Forced Drugging
Found while reading Cypherwar.com via the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. The Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that law enforcement has the authority to forcibly drug defendants who have not been convicted of any crimes. How scary is that? Get arrested and shot up with lithium by government goons even if you haven’t done anything.
WASHINGTON — Defendants can be forcibly drugged even though they haven’t been convicted of any charges and pose no danger to themselves or others.
That’s the ruling issued yesterday by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the case of United States v. Charles Thomas Sell. (see www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/02/03/011862P.pdf) The 2 – 1 split decision establishes government power to forcibly medicate a person with mind altering drugs even before trial.
“It’s a shocking, inhumane decision. Now, all the government needs are allegations and a cooperative psychiatrist to forcibly drug any citizen,” said Andrew Schlafly, General Counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). That group filed an amicus brief opposing the government drugging.
“It’s unprecedented to allow prosecutors to drug peaceful defendants presumed to be innocent. Government cannot force citizens to pledge allegiance to the flag, but now can forcibly medicate them with mind-altering drugs,” said Mr. Schlafly.
Dr. Sell, a St. Louis dentist, has been imprisoned for more than 4 years, including one- and-one-half years in solitary confinementafter being charged with Medicaid fraud. He has never been brought to trial.
While acknowledging that “the evidence does not support a finding that Sell posed a danger to himself or others” the majority opinion still found that “charges of fraud” alone are “serious” enough to justify forced medication. Further, the Court held that there are no limits on the quantity or type of drugs.
“There’s no good reason why Dr. Sell has been held so long without trial, and this decision will most likely prolong his imprisonment with no end in sight,” said Mr. Schlafly. The dissenting judge pointed out that even if Dr. Sell were to be found guilty, his sentence would be no more than 41 months — one year less than he’s already served.
A similar case is pending before the same court to allow the State to forcibly medicate a convicted murderer for execution.
“It’s appalling that the court will drug a man presumed to be innocent, even if it’s illegal to do the same thing to a convicted killer.” Mr. Schlafly said that AAPS will seek to overturn the ruling.
15
Mar 02
Donnie Darko
I watched Donnie Darko this evening. I thought it was really good. I hadn’t heard of it much before I watched it so I didn’t know quite what to expect. It’s nice to be surprised by a movie you’ve heard very very little about.
Graham Greene’s short story, The Destructors, plays a small part in the plot. You can read it in its entirety here.
I’ve not read much Graham Greene. In high school we read a book about a priest, but I don’t recall it having much of an effect on me. Though at the time I probably didn’t get a lot out of it due to my youth. I should try reading some of his stuff.
13
Mar 02
Fuck Them
Want a glimpse of how things really work? Follow the battle between the tech industry and hollywood to stop ‘piracy’. Michael Eisner of Disney Corp., who has suggested executing pirates, is up at Capitol Hill trying to force the government to come up with mandated technological barriers to prevent copying. There is no representation for the public. The entire debate is between the manufacturers and the content producers. At issue, is the reality that people don’t check with Hollywood before changing things. Despite their best measures to control everything big media is seeing that people all over the world are doing what comes natural thing…sharing. The internet has freed books, music, and video. Why should people be compelled to pay for something which they can borrow or copy from someone else? I say, fuck Michael Eisner, Jack Valenti, and all the other leeches like them. Piracy will continue even if people have to use camcorders to copy movies. Their is no hope to protect books. Text is what computers do best. You can download a book that someone scanned and ocred and it will be anywhere from 50-100 Kilobytes. That’s nothing. You could have 1500 books per 700 MB Disc. Movies are more of a problem, but there is no way to stop it without preventing people from creating videos entirely which would be nearly impossible.
Online one can find anything. Millions of people are involved in a large-scale process to share what they have. People are collaborating to create a virtual limitless library of culture. You can find sewing patterns, crochet patterns, recipes, television episodes, movies, music, music videos, books, comic books, and even scans of magazines like Playboy. All of these things shackeled by copyright. It is an exciting time to be alive.