Month: June 2004

Fishes.

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A stunner in the case against Padilla, the U.S. Citizen who has been locked up for the last two years without judicial review as an “enemy combatant”: [A]dministration officials now concede that the principal claim they have been making about Padilla ever since his detention—that he was dispatched to the United States for the specific … Read more

Premature Again…

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They just can’t wait to tack up those “Mission Accomplished” banners, this White House… Via Barry at Bloggy.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` April 29, 2004, the Bush Administration released a report called “Patterns of Global Terrorism” which indicated that the number of annual terrorist attacks had dropped. And not only dropped, but dropped to its lowest level in … Read more

Anti-War Fantasy

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There are certainly some reasonable arguments against the war in Iraq. But I must admit that the unreasonable ones absolutely drive me nuts. A perfect example of an unreasonable argument is found by Daniel Davies at the high profile academic blog Crooked Timber. He has repeatedly claimed to be merely against the unilateral U.S. war … Read more

Getting It in Writing

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The Wall Street Journal has offered up free portions of the “Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy, and Operational Considerations” (or in other words, the legal boundaries of “successful interrogations” of “[unlawful] enemy combatants”).

It’s 49 pages long, and the best bits have been reported in the press, but this part jumped out at me:

(U) Any effort by Congress to regulate the interrogation of unlawful combatants would violate the Constitution’s sole vesting of the Comander-in-Chief authority in the President. There can be little doubt that intelligence operations, such as the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants and leaders, are both necessary and proper for the effective conduct of a military campaign. Indeed, such operations may be of more importance in a war with an international terrorist organization than one with conventional armed forces of a nation-state, due to the former’s emphasis on secret operations and surprise attacks against civilians. It may be the case that only successful interrogations can provide the information necessary to prevent the success of covert terrorist attacks upon the United Sates and its citizens. Congress can no more interfere with the President’s conduct of the interroration of enemy combatants than it can dictate strategy or tactical decision on the battlefiled. Just as statues that order the President to conduct warfare in a certain manner or for specific goals would be unconstitutional, so too are laws that seek to prevent the President from gaining the intelligence he believes necessary to prevent attacks upon the United States.

(U)As this authority is inherent in the President, exercise of it by subordinates would be best if it can be shown to have been derived from the President’s authority through Presidential directive or other writing.

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Selling Out the Kurds

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Samuel Johnson noted that “Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.”

Iraq’s Kurdish leaders seem to understand that, and, despite being so much closer to having the pieces in place to make democracy work than the rest of the country (and plenty o’ oil), they continue to compromise toward a unified, democratic Iraq, including “concessions in the interim Constitution over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk [and] acceptance of a new government with no Kurds in top positions.”

But while the US and other nations of the UN Security Council congratulate themseleves on their unanimous vote yesterday, the concession it took to get there may just be the one the Kurds are unwilling to make.

As William Safire notes in his column today:

In his eagerness for the approval of the Shiite religious leader — and driven by desperation to get yesterday’s unanimous U.N. resolution in time for the G-8 meeting — President Bush may be double-crossing the Kurds, our most loyal friends in Iraq.

[…]

In February, the Iraqi Governing Council, which included all religious and ethnic groups, hammered out its only memorable work: a Transitional Administrative Law, which laid the groundwork for a constitution to be adopted later by elected officials in a sovereign state. Most important for Kurds, who have long been oppressed by an Arab majority, it established minority rights within a federal state — the essence of a stable democracy.

But as the U.N. resolution supporting that state was nearing completion, the Shiite grand ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani, suddenly intervened. He denounced the agreed-upon law as “legislated by an unelected council in the shadow of occupation.” He decreed that mentioning it in the U.N. resolution would be “a harbinger of grave consequences.”

The U.S. promptly caved. Stunned Kurds protested in a letter to President Bush that “the people of Kurdistan will no longer accept second-class citizenship in Iraq.” If the law guaranteeing minority rights was abrogated, Kurds would “have no choice but to refrain from participating in the central government, not to take part in the national elections, and to bar representatives of the central government from Kurdistan.”

Now there’s one big deterence to the Kurds forming their own government, and that’s Turkey’s promise to smash it to bits if they do. However, the Kurds may just be willing to risk that, and they may just be stronger than anyone thinks they are. Consider the following from Bartle Breese Bull’s opinion piece in the Times today:

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Sudan and the Capacity for More Tragedy

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I was already feeling guilty about not blogging about Sudan (The Times Nicholas Kristof has been covering it well, but you gotta pay for most of these now) when Gary Farber directed me to his excellent series of posts about the tragic events happening there (and don’t worry Gary, you didn’t make me feel more guilty…in fact, you helped me see something parallel but also important):

From Gary’s April 26, 2004 post

For 14 months, the government has fought a merciless war against rebels in the remote Darfur region. Sudanese warplanes and the feared Arab militiamen known as the janjaweed, who attack on horseback, have depopulated much of an area larger than California, driving roughly 1 million villagers into a few spots like Mornay. In January the town had some 2,000 inhabitants; by March there were 80,000. Every village within 30 miles has been leveled, says Coralie Lechelle, a nurse with the relief group Medecins sans Frontieres. Refugees are stuck there, she says: “In fact, it is a prison.”

Now it certainly does me no credit to admit that I skim the Kristof updates on the situation in Sudan when they come along, but then actually make a conscious decision to not post about them. And not only has that tugged hard at my conscience, making me question my values, my latent racism, my laziness, it’s also led me to dream up rationales like “I only have the capacity for so much empathy” or, worse, “when it gets really bad, then I’ll start paying attention or get involved.”

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The Turing Police

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It’s a bit ironic, really, that Gibson chose Alan Turing as the inspiration for his futuristic police force: Several of the best scenes in [Neuromancer] show the Turing police in action, as they carry out their task of making sure any AIs are firmly under human control. Cruel ideas about controlling humans led to Turing’s … Read more

The Memo

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Excerpts from a Department of Defense memo on the use of torture, from a Wall Street Journal article today: “In order to respect the president’s inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign … (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in chief authority…” After defining torture … Read more

Father Joe

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So there we were at home, an Evangelical Christian and a moderate Muslim, watching PBS and they had this story about a Catholic priest working in a Bangkok slum populated primarily by Buddhists, and, well, we were deeply moved by his story: PHIL JONES: Children singing the national anthem of Thailand — it’s how their … Read more

Reagan and Alzheimer’s Disease

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Reagan has died. I am not going to try to do what others have already done better than I could, so if you are interested in reading an excellent discussion of his political life I strongly suggest that you visit Pejmanesque especially for his excellent discussion of the fact that Reagan was instrumental in the … Read more

Zoning, was it? Less of a surprise, then.

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No, actually, I’m not being entirely facetious. 99%, perhaps, but that last 1% is a different story. I am referring, of course, to the armor-plated bulldozer (complete with .50 caliber machine gun) that tore up a Colorado town yesterday:

GRANBY — A 52-year-old welder nursing a grudge against the town fathers and driving a bulldozer converted into a war machine ripped the heart of this high-country ranching town from its foundations Friday.

Among the structures destroyed or heavily damaged in a relentless 90-minute rampage were Granby’s town hall and library, a bank, the town’s newspaper, an electric cooperative building, Gambles Store, an excavating business and a house owned by the town’s former mayor, as well as a concrete plant adjacent to the business of the man believed responsible for the bizarre assault.

It’s not really funny: although the, well, rampage somehow didn’t hurt anyone being attacked, the guy responsible shot himself afterwards. For that matter, I don’t particularly think that driving around town with what’s essentially a homemade armored car and shooting at things is an example of what one would call reasonable behavior; Jim Henley aside*, I suspect that a tumor or recent change in brain chemistry was what set this guy off.

That being said, I’m not surprised that a zoning violation was the apparent cause: it’s amazing how much sheer emotional energy and contention get generated by the simple application of rules about who can build what and where. I’m also struck by these two lines:

“He said, ‘By God, I am going to bulldoze those businesses,’ the businesses of all the people who’d done this to him,” Brown recalled.

“People knew he was building the armored bulldozer, but they didn’t know why he was building it,” said Nelson. He said Heemeyer welded one-inch armor plate around the bulldozer.

Because, of course, there are so many possible reasons why a man would need a homemade armored bulldozer. A pity that Ms. Brown and Mr. Nelson never compared notes…

Moe

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May you have a peaceful passing, sir.

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I am very sorry to report that I think that former President Reagan is entering his final illness: Reagan’s Health Said to Have Deteriorated PARIS – Former President Ronald Reagan (news – web sites)’s health has deteriorated, the White House has been told. The White House was informed that the 93-year-old former president’s health had … Read more

I wonder…

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…if this Paul Thurrott guy got hit with the same Trojan Horse that I’ve been dealing with since this morning. If he had, I sympathize. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a blood-soaked revenge to plan out. (Via Brad DeLong) Moe PS: I am in a sufficiently grumpy mood as to not be looking … Read more

D-Day Open Thread

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What if D-Day had failed? Dr. David Stafford, of the Centre for World War Two Studies at Edinburgh University considers an alternative history: D-Day success was no sure thing and failure would have meant military and political catastrophe. No-one knew this better than the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D Eisenhower. On the night of … Read more

Just How Bad Is US Intelligence?

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Digging around in the basement to find and dust off…ahhh, here it is: Despite what some have suggested, we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles, though some analysts speculated that terrorists might hijack planes to try and free US-held terrorists. —Dr. Rice, March 22, 2004, Op-ed … Read more

IRR Callup Rumors

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ObWi Reader Angela asked a question in the earlier thread about potential widespread IRR callups that deserves its own post. Would anyone who knows the answers, please share: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Does anyone know what ‘significant portions’ of the IRR means? My husband is in the IRR and we have heard so much crap in the last … Read more

Thursday and tired…

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…so don’t expect too many posts from me, and fewer consequential ones. Speaking of inconsequential, take a gander of the pure evil represented by this. Or maybe it’ll be comic gold. We don’t know. We. Just. Don’t. Know. (pause) KHANNNNN!!!!! (via Poliblog)

Art, Terror, and an Epidemic of Idiocy

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The FBI clearly overreacted. They were doing their job, and no one should fault them for that, but when it became apparent that they were wrong, they should have simply said so, apologized, and moved on. But they can’t seem to do that. So what do they do instead? Apparently, S.O.P. in such cases is to make matters worse.

On May 11, State University of New York at Buffalo professor and artist Steve Kurtz awoke to find his wife of 20 years, Hope (a fellow artist), had died in her sleep. He called 911 and what had began as a tragic day became surreally frightenting.

Both of the Kurtz’s belonged to a cutting-edge artist collective known as Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), which focusses on artwork designed to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. Most, if not all, of the collective members are respected university professors. You can get a sense of their work from their book titles: (Molecular Invasion; Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas; The Electronic Disturbance; and Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media).

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Voting Patterns Among the Poor

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On Chicago Boyz there is a very interesting post about voting habits among the poor. An oft cited fact (search the Calpundit archives or Matthew Yglesias archives for examples) suggests that many poorer areas tend to have Republican voting patterns. The general explanation is that these people are voting against their own interests. They have … Read more

Fourth draft of this one.

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Don’t expect me to believe that story about the bird getting flipped unless there’s a verified photo involved. It sounded too good to be true, so it almost certainly was. Moe PS: I’m not trying to be coy: I’m trying to state an opinion on a current event while feeding the rumor mill at little … Read more

The future, one step at a time.

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Private Rocket will try and reach space: MOJAVE, Calif. – A privately developed manned rocket will attempt to reach space this month, its builders said Wednesday. It would be the first non-governmental flight to leave Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceShipOne, created by aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by billionaire Paul Allen, will attempt to reach an … Read more

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

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From Matt Yglesias, more evidence that, despite my best efforts, I am aging: I also wonder how novel all this hooking up is really supposed to be. Don’t Mike and Stacy hook up in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a film from before my time? Also missing is the broader socioeconomic context. Nevermind the “broader … Read more

Never has so much been asked of so few

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As Tacitus wrote last Friday, there are rumors that the DoD would begin activating significant portions of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) to meet our needs for more troops. As Tacitus pointed out “an IRR call-up is supposed to be an exceptional event,” such as the Chinese invading Oregon. In today’s New York Times, Andrew … Read more

Lastly…

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…while I agree with Gary that this is pretty funny, for some reason I want to see the blogging equivalent. Surely we can come up with twenty-six universal blogging shorthands, yes? Or not. I never know what will spark interest and what won’t…

Two Good Charities.

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Via Phil Dennison’s Catch Me If You Can we see Spirit of America, a group sending relief directly to Afghanistan and Iraq, and via Nathan’s Argus we see Send a Cow (via The Mongol Rally, which for some reason is having a completely inexplicable appeal to me), a group promoting self-sufficiency programs in Africa. Never … Read more