HANDWRITTEN LETTER SHUTTERS SENATE, IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS ANNIVERSARY, A JOLT ANYONE?

November 4th, 2009 - by: danny

Y A N K E E S W I N T H E W O R L D S E R I E S F O R T H E T W E N T Y S E V E N T H (27th) TIME

I hear people screaming through my window. I used to Scream Too.

DO YOU NEED A JOLT? Election Message: The Progressive Base Needs a Jolt
Bill Scher writes on Our Future.org

“It’s clear that the big turnout which sent Obama to the White House with a progressive mandate was not stirred yesterday. While conservatives are amped up to defeat what they see as a socialist government takeover of everything, liberals are conflicted about the compromises being considered to get anything passed by a Senate supermajority and a ideologically diverse Democratic caucus. No one in Congress should view last night’s results are reason to delay and dilute health care and energy reform legislation any further. On the contrary, it is a clear signal that the progressive base needs a jolt.”

SENATE SHUTS DOWN IN SECURITY PANIC
THE UNCHANGING FACE OF US FOREIGN POLICY
THE ILLUSION OF BI-PARTISANSHIP

THE HILL: ‘Very, very close to zero’ GOPs will vote for health bill

Republicans will overwhelmingly reject the Democrats’ healthcare reform measure when it is reaches the House floor, according to a key lawmaker.

AARP SAYS IT WILL ENDORSE HOUSE BILL

THEATER OF THE ABSURD: IF SEE SOMETHING OR THINK YOU DO, SAY SOMETHING

THE HILL: Letter to Reid from former surgeon general shuts down Senate

A letter about healthcare reform to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), apparently from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, triggered a security scare that briefly shut down much of the Senate on Wednesday. The typed letter, tucked inside a hand-written business envelope, appeared in Reid’s office without postage, in an outgoing mailbox bin. A Senate postal clerk noticed the envelope and alerted a Reid staffer, who in turn notified Capitol Police about 2 p.m.

A small swarm of officers responded, first shutting down the hallway outside Reid’s office and then taking the even rarer step of shutting down the wide Ohio Clock corridor that senators use for press conferences outside the Senate’s main entrance. Mindful of the ricin and anthrax attacks in 2001, teams of hazardous materials technicians were called and tested the envelope before opening it and discovering Koop’s letter

US FOREIGN POLICY–UNCHANGING –BILL BLUM: ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

The continuing desperate quest to find something good to say about US foreign policy
Not the crazy, hateful right wing, not racist or disrupting public meetings, not demanding birth certificates … but the respectable right, holding high positions in academia and in every administration, Republican or Democrat, members of the highly esteemed Council on Foreign Relations. Here’s Joshua Kurlantzick, a “Fellow for Southeast Asia” at CFR, writing in the equally esteemed and respectable Washington Post about how – despite all the scare talk – it wouldn’t be so bad if Afghanistan actually turned into another Vietnam because “Vietnam and the United States have become close partners in Southeast Asia, exchanging official visits, building an important trading and strategic relationship and fostering goodwill between governments, businesses and people on both sides. … America did not win the war there, but over time it has won the peace. … American war veterans publicly made peace with their old adversaries … A program [to exchange graduate students and professors] could ensure that the next generation of Afghan leaders sees an image of the United States beyond that of the war.” 8 And so on.

On second thought, this is not so much right-wing jingoism as it is … uh … y’know … What’s the word? … Ah yes, “pointless”. Just what is the point? Germany and Israel are on excellent terms … therefore, what point can we make about the Holocaust?
As to America not winning the war in Vietnam, that’s worse than pointless. It’s wrong. Most people believe that the United States lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, by poisoning the earth, the water, the air, and the gene pool for generations, the US in fact achieved its primary purpose: it left Vietnam a basket case, preventing the rise of what might have been a good development option for Asia, an alternative to the capitalist model; for the same reason the United States has been at war with Cuba for 50 years, making sure that the Cuban alternative model doesn’t look as good as it would if left in peace.

And in all the years since the Vietnam War ended, the millions of Vietnamese suffering from diseases and deformities caused by US sprayings of the deadly chemical “Agent Orange” have received from the United States no medical care, no environmental remediation, no compensation, and no official apology. That’s exactly what the Afghans – their land and/or their bodies permeated with depleted uranium, unexploded cluster bombs, and a witch’s brew of other charming chemicals – have to look forward to in Kurlantzick’s Brave New World. “If the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan eventually resembles the one we now have with Vietnam, we should be overjoyed,” he writes. God Bless America.

VIA UNDERNEWS: FEDERAL APPEALS COURT SAYS IT’S OKAY FOR GOVERNMENT TO ILLEGALLY ARREST, TORTURE AND SUBMIT TO RENDITION AN INNOCENT PERSON

Glenn Greenwald, Salon – It’s not often that an appellate court decision reflects so vividly what a country has become, but such is the case with yesterday’s ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Arar v. Ashcroft. Maher Arar is both a Canadian and Syrian citizen of Syrian descent. A telecommunications engineer and graduate of Montreal’s McGill University, he has lived in Canada since he’s 17 years old. In 2002, he was returning home to Canada from vacation when, on a stopover at JFK Airport, he was (a) detained by U.S. officials, (b) accused of being a terrorist, (c) held for two weeks incommunicado and without access to counsel while he was abusively interrogated, and then (d) was “rendered” — despite his pleas that he would be tortured — to Syria, to be interrogated and tortured. He remained in Syria for the next 10 months under the most brutal and inhumane conditions imaginable, where he was repeatedly tortured. Everyone acknowledges that Arar was never involved with Terrorism and was guilty of nothing. . .

In January, 2007, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly apologized to Arar for the role Canada played in these events, and the Canadian government paid him $9 million in compensation. That was preceded by a full investigation by Canadian authorities and the public disclosure of a detailed report which concluded “categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constituted a threat to the security of Canada.” By stark and very revealing contrast, the U.S. Government has never admitted any wrongdoing or even spoken publicly about what it did; to the contrary, it repeatedly insisted that courts were barred from examining the conduct of government officials because what we did to Arar involves “state secrets” and because courts should not interfere in the actions of the Executive where national security is involved. What does that behavioral disparity between the two nations say about how “democratic,” “accountable,” and “open” the United States is?

The Second Circuit — by a vote of 7-4 — agreed with the government and dismissed Arar’s case in its entirety. It held that even if the government violated Arar’s constitutional rights as well as statutes banning participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him. Why? Because “providing a damages remedy against senior officials who implement an extraordinary rendition policy would enmesh the courts ineluctably in an assessment of the validity of the rationale of that policy and its implementation in this particular case, matters that directly affect significant diplomatic and national security concerns” In other words, government officials are free to do anything they want in the national security context — even violate the law and purposely cause someone to be tortured — and courts should honor and defer to their actions by refusing to scrutinize them.

Italian court convicts 23 Americans of kidnapping in CIA rendition of Muslim cleric

WP: CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel had been tried in absentia on kidnapping charges for their involvement in the 2003 abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.

CONVICTIONS IN ITALY:

Criminal Defense Lawyer and first generation Italian, Joseph DiBenedetto believes none of the Americans will serve a day in jail.

“The sentences imposed, while excessive, will likely never be served by any American CIA agent. Between the lengthy appeal process and political maneuvering, this conviction will likely be overturned or rendered unenforceable.”

ISRAEL LOBBY WINS AGAIN: THE GOLDSTONE REPORT CONDEMNED

Yesterday, I carried an excerpt from Judge Richard Goldstone’s letter to the Congress pointing to factual errors in the a proposed Congressonal condemnation. Now, it has passed

Debbie Menon writes:

Yesterday, the US House of Representatives voted 344-36 in support of the remarkably biased H. Res. 867 which called on the President and the Secretary of State to unequivocally oppose any endorsement of the
Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
.
During the debate on the House floor, it became increasingly clear that the Members of Congress who voted for H. Res. 867 had not read the report, and instead were relying on inaccuracies and deeply flawed arguments made around the Report. By passing this resolution, Congress sent a message yesterday that it does not stand for the accountability of war crimes committed in Gaza, the protection of civilians, and/or the restoration for peace.

The News Dissector