Giuliani Rewritting History of War on Terror

I'm going to change topic for this post. I'm heading a little further West.

During his failed Presidential nomination Rudy Giuliani the former Mayor of New York didn't stop reminded the people of America that he was there during the 9/11 attacks on his city. It was his claim to being the man to deal with the big questions.

Today however, he is getting so caught up in Republican rhetoric against Barack Obama that he is trying to turn the attempted Christmas Day attack against the President. On Good Morning America this morning he claimed, "we had no domestic attacks under Bush — we've had one under Obama."

Now as I and the rest of the world seem to recall in a school room in Florida President Bush was alerted to the fact that there was a potential incident going on in New York. I checked, my memory wasn't failing me. YouTube backed it up.




The Republicans are full of negative campaigning. They don't seem to ask what Jesus would have done about healthcare. Reading my new testament not once does he ask "Do you have insurance?" before performing a healing miracle. Yet they insist that the man who was accused of mixing with sinners and prostitutes would have condemned then to Katrina, or Asia to the Tsunami that hit.

Now they are even deleting history to try and point the finger at a Democrat. Hardly being truthful and certainly not WWJD.

Regime Change was Goal of Blair not WMDs

Steve Bell Cartoon from the Guardian 8 July 2003

"I would still have thought it right to remove him [Saddam Hussein]. I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat."

So says Tony Blair, who has also admitted that the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) were only a convenient, in inaccurate, tool to bring about the goal of regime change. He was being interviewed by Ferm Britton, who has managed to get more candor out of the former Prime Minister that some of the hard pressed political operatives in news. He added:

"I can't really think we'd be better with him and his two sons still in charge, but it's incredibly difficult and I totally understand...

"That's why I sympathise with the people who were against [the war] for perfectly good reasons and are against it now, but for me, you know, in the end I had to take the decision."

So it would appear that the Lib Dems were right before we went to war. This was an illegal war.

This was one not so much about removing WMDs from the region but a dynasty from the region. This was something that not even when the same man had invaded another sovereign country. The dodgy dossier has just become a whole lot more dodgy as Blair has now revealed it was a convenient stick with which to beat Saddam.

Having to "deploy different arguments" if the 45 minute threat hadn't existed to enter another sovereign state and remove its leader shows premeditation to do something. The intent was there before anything resembling a 'just' cause. In a court of law that would be grounds to press for murder rather than manslaughter, but in the international field Blair being bold enough to admit it thinks that he should get away with it. Over recent weeks it has been becoming clear that George W. Bush and Blair were looking for a way to get Saddam implicated in 9/11 so that Bush could go an complete the job that daddy started but didn't complete.

So now from his own mouth we have the truth that WMDs was just a convenience that could be used to drag the country, or at least enough MPs, along with him to invade Iraq.

Four Who Should Face Investigation over Torture

Maybe the choice of the first family's dog having the word 'water' was more than a coincidence as Peter Brookes suggests above from today's Times. Of course the alternative did have the word 'poodle' in it so no matter what he'd gone for the half hearted use of the memos he has released would probably have led to a dog themed cartoon.

What is startling as the details of the legal positions on those memos is investigated is the detailed lengths to which the 'victims' can or cannot be exposed to these measures without it constituting torture. By the way the level before torture happens is defined in the memos as the 'interrogation' not causing intense, severe or lasting physical pain or psychological damage.

Issues such as:

• the water should not be colder that 41F
• exposure to water should not exceed 20 minutes "without drying and rewarming"
• exposure to waterboarding should not be greater than 40 seconds at a time

It is the precision of these memos penned by Jay Bybee (Assistant Attorney General 2001-2003 now judge on the 9th Circuit), John Yoo (a colleague from the Justice Department now professor at Berkeley School of Law) and Stephen Bradbury (Head of the Justice Dept. Office of Legal Counsel now an attorney in Washington) that raises concern. These men knew that they were running right up next to the letter of the law, right up to the envelope of what actually would be entailed and correctly branded as torture. They were working on the margins, indeed defining the margins of what is legal.

How carefully did those carrying out the actually know the detail in those 100 plus pages of legal advise? Did the water temperature drop? Where the time limits exceeded? If by trying to hedge people in from something that is on the cusp of being legal with so much detail surely some of that was from time to time overlooked. In the heat of everyone's day to day job some small detail is almost certainly neglected, not intentionally, but in error on a regular basis.

Why did Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury not give advise to steer well clear of anything that could even be conceived as torture? Because they were acting under orders? Whose orders? George W. Bush that's who. Bradbury was the chief legal counsel for all of the Bush second term. If there are arguments for letting the agents executing the orders off then surely these are the names of the four men who set the definitions, limits and legal parlance of when a torture technique is or isn't actually torture. They were aware of the thin line to the extent that they were so meticulous is trying to prevent it being crossed knowing that what they were planning or setting down the precedents for was very close to the quick.

These four surely have questions to answer and should not be allowed to get of.

US Use of Bully Boy Tactics

It's the sort of threat used by paedophilic abusers, "Don't tell or we leave you exposed," threatening worse than is already experienced. But it is just the sort of thing that the USA has apparently be doing to the UK.

That would be the country that somehow has stood unwaveringly with the US on its war on terror every step of the way. Yet apparently if the UK reveals the alleged torture that Binyam Mohammed underwent at Guantánamo Bay the US have threatened to take away their intelligence sharing which would leave the UK heavily exposed. So like a victim clinging to its abuser because somehow there is a need the UK Government is keeping mum (mom) about the US's abuses because it can't afford to live without what it gets from the relationship.

If this is true what exactly has the US got to hide? Of course the use of torture on Prisoners of War is outlawed in the Geneva Convention not that the USA seems to pay much heed to that at times. If it is true why is the UK protecting the US? Is there some sense of self preservation?

Maybe David Miliband's statement that, "We never condone or authorise the use of torture," isn't all that close to the truth. If that is the case we need to know just what the UK did know, and when they knew it? Did we know before, during or only find out after? Who knew anything and what was their reaction?

The fact that the US are trying to suppress makes it all the more important that this does get an airing. Even if that means a trip and stay in the Netherlands for a few high profile people.

It's Inauguration Day

Today the 43rd man*, but 44th President will be sworn in as President of the USA. If you have been asleep it is the first non-Caucasion to be sworn in on a bible in front to the Capitol. So have a good day Barack Obama.

However, Peter Brookes is probably hoping that the 43rd President George W. Bush may well have learnt from history when he drew this:

*Grover Cleveland counts as 22 and 24.

A - Z of Bushisms: The Second Term

To celebrate the end of eight years of George W. Bush I've decided to look at the things he has been substantitive and brought joy and pleasure to the world. Here is the A-Z of Bushisms.

Having already covered the first term it is time to look at the last 4 years.

A- Amnesty?: "Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that." on the immigration reform bill, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2007

B -Brazil: Wow! Brazil is big." after being shown a map of Brazil by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2005

C - Community: "Listen, I want to thank leaders of the -- in the faith -- faith-based and community-based community for being here." Washington, D.C., Sept. 6, 2005

D -Depression: "So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression." Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

E - Erection Election: Who could have possibly envisioned an erection -- an election in Iraq at this point in history?" --George W. Bush, at the white House, Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2005

F - Free Markets: "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008

G - Gender Confusion: "If you're a younger person, you ought to be asking members of Congress and the United States Senate and the president what you intend to do about it. If you see a train wreck coming, you ought to be saying, what are you going to do about it, Mr. Congressman, or Madam Congressman?" Detroit, Mich., Feb. 8, 2005

G - Germany: "The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany." D.C., May 5, 2006

H - Hezbollah: "See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over." chomping on a dinner roll while talking about the Middle East crisis with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 summit, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 17, 2006

I - Internet: Maria Bartiromo: "I'm curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?"
President Bush: "Occasionally. One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see -- I've forgot the name of the program -- but you get the satellite, and you can -- like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes." --interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Oct. 24, 2006

J - Joining the Dots: "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006

K - Kennedy, head of: "Finally, the desk, where we'll have our picture taken in front of -- is nine other Presidents used it. This was given to us by Queen Victoria in the 1870s, I think it was. President Roosevelt put the door in so people would not know he was in a wheelchair. John Kennedy put his head out the door." showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

L - Literacy: We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives -- like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write." on federal education requirements, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

M - More Better: "We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job. That's what I'm telling you." Gulfport, Miss., Sept. 20, 2005

N - Nation's Bicentennial: "You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- 1976." to Queen Elizabeth, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2007


O - OPEC APEC: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit." addressing Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC Summit, Sept. 7, 2007

P - Promises, Broken: "I think younger workers -- first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government -- promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is." Washington, D.C., May 4, 2005

P - Punctuation (in history): "I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy." interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sept. 24, 2006

Q - Question, violence: No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that." Washington, D.C., March 22, 2006

R - Reading I: "[I'm] occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term." Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005

R - Reading II: "That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three -- three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?" while showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

S - Security (Oval Office): "I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office." Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008


T - Talking Death: "Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die." Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006

U - Universial Values: "The relations with, uhh -- Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh -- because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know -- European values, they're universal values. And those values -- uhh -- being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." at a press conference with European Union dignitaries, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005

V - Voices: "People say, well, do you ever hear any other voices other than, like, a few people? Of course I do." Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

W - War (President of): "You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war President. No President wants to be a war President, but I am one." Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

W - War (Reminder of): "You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war." on the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005

W - Words: "Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words." with Rush Limbaugh, Nov. 1, 2006

XYZ



Y - Yesterday: Yesterday, you made note of my -- the lack of my talent when it came to dancing. But nevertheless, I want you to know I danced with joy. And no question Liberia has gone through very difficult times." speaking with the president of Liberia, Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 2008



Z - Zzzz: "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend." on visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005

One final thought as of tomorrow midday EST this one is so true:

"I can only speak to myself." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

A - Z of Bushisms: The First Term

To celebrate the end of eight years of George W. Bush I've decided to look at the things he has been substantitive and brought joy and pleasure to the world. Here is the A-Z of Bushisms. But only for his first term and first election campaign. I had too much material to just keep it down to one set.

Just what are we going to do for desk calanders from now?

A - Africa: "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." at a news conference in Europe, June 14, 2001

B - Books: "Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one." on William F. Buckley, Al Smith Dinner, New York City, Oct. 19, 2000

C- Children (Darkness of Internet): "It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet." Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

D- Dictatorship: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

E - Explanations: "Never again in the halls of Washington, D.C., do I want to have to make explanations that I can't explain." Portland, Oregon, Oct. 31, 2000

F - Flying Objects: "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

G - Generation (of power): "The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants." Jan. 14, 2001

H - Human Cloning: "It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." Washington, D.C., April 10, 2002

I -Internets: I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

J - Justice: "Justice was being delivered to a man who defied that gift from the Almighty to the people of Iraq." Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003

K - Kennedy Kerry: "Let me see where to start here. First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator of all." --George W. Bush, referring to Sen. Kerry, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

L - Language: "Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican." declining to take reporters' questions during a photo op with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, April 21, 2001

L - Language II (French): "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." discussing the decline of the French economy with British Prime Minister Tony Blair 2002

L - Literacy: "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' Feb. 21, 2001

M - Misundestmate: "They misunderestimated me." Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

N- Name-calling?: "It is time to set aside the old partisan bickering and finger-pointing and name-calling that comes from freeing parents to make different choices for their children." -George W. Bush, on "parental empowerment in education," April 12, 2001

O - Oil: "It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas." Beaverton, Ore., Sep. 25, 2000

O- Oval Office: "I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place where people stand outside, they're getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed in the atmosphere, and they say, man, you're looking pretty." Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2004

P - Peace? (Middle East): "My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the - in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen." Crawford, Texas, Aug, 13, 2001

Q - Quality of Life: "It's important for young men and women who look at the Nebraska champs to understand that quality of life is more than just blocking shots." in remarks to the University of Nebraska women's volleyball team, the 2001 national champions, May 31, 2001

R - Resignate: "They said, 'You know, this issue doesn't seem to resignate with the people.' And I said, you know something? Whether it resignates or not doesn't matter to me, because I stand for doing what's the right thing, and what the right thing is hearing the voices of people who work." Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000

S-Shootings: "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001

T - Transformationed: "The United States and Russia are in the midst of transformationed relationship that will yield peace and progress." Washington, D.C., Nov, 13, 2001

T - Twentieth Century: "That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century. " on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

U - United States Nations Senate: "John Thune has got a common-sense vision for good forest policy. I look forward to working with him in the United Nations Senate to preserve these national heritages." Aberdeen, S.D., Oct. 31, 2002

V - Vampires: "One of the interesting initiatives we've taken in Washington, D.C., is we've got these vampire-busting devices. A vampire is a - a cell deal you can plug in the wall to charge your cell phone." Denver, Aug. 14, 2001

W - Wrangling: "As far as the legal hassling and wrangling and posturing in Florida, I would suggest you talk to our team in Florida led by Jim Baker." Crawford, Texas, Nov. 30, 2000

XYZ

Y- Yasser Arafat: "After all, a week ago, there were - Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protestors and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to lead the world." Washington, D.C., May 2, 2002

Continues with the A - Z of the Second Term.

2010 and All That

So now we know something about the withdrawal strategy from Iraq, 'It ain't gonna happen before 2010. The US Army have announced that new indications show the situation is too unstable to foresee an end to the 'war' (yes they used the word war) in the next four years, so they are going to have to maintain troop levels at least until them.

So Iraq War 2003-2010+? will mean that the US/UK alliance are gearing up to occupy Iraq for longer than Germany occupied Europe from 1939-1945. Strange that this new intelligence must come from the same sources that told Bush and Blair that the Iraqi regime had weapons of mass destruction. Well at least the country has them now even if they are in the hands of the occupying forces.

If You Believed...

They put a man on the moon.
If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

REM Man on the Moon

Well 37 years ago today Neil Armstrong took his one small step and 12 years ago the man who is running out of tricks up his sleeve once known as Teflon Tony was elected leader of the Labour Party.

The last line of the REM song before the repeat of the refrain is 'Hey baby, are we losing touch?'. Or in today's language of choice on the world stage 'Yo Tony, are we losing touch?'.

The response will probably go something like. 'Well George. You and me are in constant touch and at least the UN haven't been accusing us of War Crimes unlike elsewhere so we must be in touch with reality.'

Well actually Tony and George one thing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, is saying about the situation in Isreal, Gaza and Lebanon is that is responsibilty on all parties to respect the "principle of proportionality" and the need to protect civilians. Applying the same strenuous measures to Afghanistan and Iraq would be interesting, however still we have silence or lack of condemnation from the US and UK governments for the disproportionate killings of civilians by Isreal in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Torture Awareness Month

June 26th is the day the United Nations has designated the International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture. A number of organisations have joined with TASSC International to set aside this month as Torture Awareness Month.

While a lot of this action is targetted against the US Government the fact that Tony Blair has been aiding George Bush with flights through UK airports has aided the US in extraordinary rendition and in outsourcing torture.

Bush Seeks to Ban Gay Marriage

After years of speculation as to which Republican would have the audacity to attempt it in the land of the free, step forward George W. Bush. The leader of the war on terror has announced a new front as he attempts, yet again, to constitutionally seek a ban on gay marriages. This comes less than two years after Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, spoke out against such a ban when Bush had previously backed a motion calling for a federal ban.

This could be an attempt to shore up key grass root Republican votes following recent opinion polls the latest of which had the Republican congress on only a 27% approval rating ahead of November's mid-term elections. One pollster Charlie Cook said:

"It's bad. It's very bad. All the diagnostic indicators suggest that 2006 will be Armageddon for the Republicans."

However, many people put Bush's victory over Kerry down to the ballot initiative in Ohio to ban gay marriage which brought out the narrow Republican victory there which secured Bush four more years. If Ohio's 20 electoral college votes had gone the other way Kerry would be the current occupant of the White House.

So is the resurection of this policy, plus repealing the estate tax and the congressional right to ban flag burning a sign of election year panic?

None of the three is currently expected to pass, but it is a marker for the nation.