Of torture and disassembling.
Topic: Bush Administraiton

President Bush said the Amnesty International's critism of Guantanamo was "absurd." Gulag of our times indeed! One thing you can say about the Bushies is, they stay on message.

Bush said of Amnesty:

"It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of ? and the allegations ? by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble ? that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report."

Actually, "disassemble" means to take something apart.(Like our military for instance.) Funny the media just printed this quote with no correction. I think what he meant to say, though, was "dissemble." Rummy and Cheney are so good at it, they ought to give the boy a heads up on that one.

An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer says "In a statement Sunday, the Pentagon said many of the men [The detainees] had been trained to lie." Of course, they're all guilty, they musy be lying. God knows, there's no evidence whatsoever of any torture, abuse, or killings has been going on at U.S. prisons over seas.

The Inquirer published several articles on records released through the FOIA on the reports of the special tribunals set up to determine the guilt or innocence of those being held. Which begs the question, if they're all people who are dangerous and hate America, why bother with a tribunal? The article goes on to say "While most of the prisoners denied the accusations that led to their imprisonment, some freely admitted joining the Taliban but wanted to be charged and put on trial." Now, isn't that strange. Not all are denying they are terrorists. Why weren't they trained to lie?

"It seems like you are keeping and detaining innocent people," said one detainee, accused of asking Afghan soldiers for guns to fight Americans."

Some detainees said they were sold by Afghanee war lords and Pakistani tribesmen to the U.S. for a bounty.

The Inquirer:

A former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden told the AP that the accounts sounded legitimate because U.S. allies regularly got money to help catch Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Gary Schroen said he took a suitcase containing $3 million in cash into Afghanistan himself to help supply and win over warlords to fight for U.S. Special Forces.

"It wouldn't surprise me if we paid rewards," said Schroen, who retired after 32 years in the CIA, soon after the fall of Kabul in late 2001...
Schroen said Afghan warlords such as Gen. Rashid Dostum were among those who received bundles of notes. 'It may be that we were giving rewards to people like Dostum because his guys were capturing a lot of Taliban and al-Qaeda,' he said."

Allawi 'end of insurgency count-down' continues:

According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry:

AP

"...at least 825 the number of people slain since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28...In the past 18 months, 12,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, including more than 10,000 Shiites, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said, citing figures from a research center. But he said he analyzed the figures on the basis of areas where the victims lived, not data explicitly stating the branch of Islam to which they belong." Yeah right. You got to wonder about the motivation behind breaking the numbers up into religeous sects. But no worries, they've got 40,000 troops out there hunting down insurgents. Regardless the bloodshed continues unabatted.

Are we leaving so soon?

The Nation:

"For the first time since the war in Iraq began twenty-six months ago, the House of Representatives debated the need for US troops to exit Iraq. The modest amendment, introduced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California last Thursday evening, called on President Bush to develop a plan for the withdrawal of US forces. With virtually no prior notice or lobbying, 123 Democrats and 5 Republicans voted for Woolsey's amendment. But with no support from either the Democratic or Republican leadership, and thus no chance of passing, no major US newspaper felt obligated to cover the unprecedented proceedings."

Not a moment too soon apparently.

Newsfromrussia":

"The U.S. military may not be able to win any new wars as quickly as planned because the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have strained its manpower and resources, the nation's top military officer told Congress in a classified report.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the U.S. military as in a period of increased risk, according to a senior defense official, who described the report Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military has timelines in place for defeating its potential adversaries, given enough soldiers, tanks, aircraft and warships to do the job. But with so much of those resources tied up fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, those timelines could slip, Myers said, according to the defense official."

This damn war is going to spoil the party in Iran!