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Abu Muqawama Demands The Minotaur Memos!
August 28, 2009 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 7:50am | 23 Comments
The Onion calls bulls**t on the cable news torture debate as only The Onion can.
LMFAO Absolutely
LMFAO Absolutely hilarious!
"The Geneva conventions strictly prohibit the use of any axe-wielding bovine with razor sharp teeth longer than nine inches."
Brilliant!
Brilliant!
I am not sure they are
I am not sure they are calling BS on the cable news debate as much as they are slyly commenting on the advocates for "enhanced interrogation techniques."
The Onion video is just one
The Onion video is just one of the best things on the internet. This just made my day. Still the Dragon Tank would have to be my all-time favorite.
PETA approved? Any team in
PETA approved? Any team in the NFL other than the Eagles would hire the Minotaur for a pass rushing position.
Hi, I thought you might be
Hi,
I thought you might be interested in Stephen Grey's piece in the new issue of Prospect, in which he examines where Britain has gone wrong in Helmand, and where it continues to go wrong.
The piece is free to read at Prospect's website:
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/08/cracking-on-in-helmand/
Please feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comment section below the piece.
Best wishes,
Brian
Dear Brian: Thank you....am
Dear Brian:
Thank you....am reading the report from the Army TRADOC news service on Capstone, as doctrine for the future, it appears that the Army will improve the knetics of its ability to make the conflicted environment more accessable to the truck with cement and wads of money. Romantics will have to continue cracking on. There is not the content within the doctrine, yet.
Great! Now if they could
Great! Now if they could just start asking the really tough questions, like:
1) When Al Qaeda detainees were taken away from their FBI interrogators and throw into the Minotaur's labyrinth, was an admission of a link to Saddam what the Minotaur was after? That seems to fit the timing pretty well, as there was a major effort to link Al Qaeda to Saddam in fall 2002, which is when the Minotaur was released.
2) Who decided to import the Minotaur to Iraq and Afghanistan? Notice that in those places, it seems that more than just a few Al Qaeda detainees were thrown in - in fact, it appears that detainees in Iraq had to run the Minotaur's gauntlet as a matter of course - "part of being processed."
3) When Rumsfeld and Cheney's schloke and awe program failed to have the desired psychological effect on the Iraqi public, did they then ask the Minotaur to do the job for them? Give the people a taste of the Minotaur and they'll be obedient and not complain about these production sharing agreements - was that the notion?
Seriously. Instructions to soldiers: "Take detainee. Ram head into wall. Take next detainee. Ram head into wall..." Once they had been through that process, the theory went, they'd be willing to talk - it was a waste of time to even talk to them beforehand. It doesn't make sense as an information gathering strategy - but these clowns learned their trade torturing helpless villagers in Central America into submission, and so they might have believed it would work as a COIN strategy.
Lessee... does torture work as a COIN strategy?
One wonders if rather than
One wonders if rather than "a link to Saddam," the Minotaur was trying to determine if front-line 'boots' ("Al Qaeda detainees") knew the identity of deep pockets *other than Saddam* backing Al Qaeda.
From memory: "We dont use
From memory: "We dont use vultures. The enemy uses vultures. That is what separates us from the enemy."
Fnord, I remember: "We dont
Fnord, I remember: "We dont use griffens. The enemy uses griffens. That is what separates us from the enemy."
What has the Minotaur done
What has the Minotaur done with sons of Khalid Sheik Mohammed?
From memory: We have met
From memory: We have met the enemy; it is us.
Pogo
What separates the enemy
What separates the enemy from us is...they play to win. We wage war...well apparently as a govt program. Which means of course -- it's as close to immortal as you can get. Don't believe me? How many people are still here fighting Vietnam?
The Minotaur can drink from my canteen any day. And if me or my loved ones are in danger, I want the Minotaur to be the one they send.
Not pompus hyprocrites with their annoying moral preening and pretensions of moral superiority. If the smug fits, wear it. Stay home if you don't want to play for keeps.
What will have me calling bullshit, and ROFL is when the Bambi administration goes there - that's right kids, when he authorizes (or allows at a lower level) enhanced interrogation, or if you like torture. Cuz you know he's gonna go there faster than a Chicago pol takes a bribe if (and when) we get hit. He'll have to, it will be his and the Dems asses in a sling if he doesn't move well to the right of Cheney. And he willlll........
It's gonna be funny watching the Libs wet their pants and come up with all kinds of really, er tortured rationalizations to do what it takes to survive and protect the nation. Gonna be funnier watching the media be the ones who peddle it for them. And it's gonna be hysterical when the wonkers suddenly have to confront reality and their constructs come crashing down.
Thanks for the rant. And yes, the Onion is funny....
Btw, for free: Here is your
Btw, for free: Here is your solution to the question of hard questioning.
1) You should make SERES make a set of rules that are absolute, and stick by that.
2) You should have some panels internalized where the questions of urgency/necessity must be presented before measures are taken. That means a small internal trial, with if possible both sides presented. I understand that this is not possible in the field, but still that process of a evaluation of all hard decisions (Bangram/not Bangram) should have a inter??mediary phase before you make it.
3) There should be one court of appeal for all. That shouldnt be so fcking hard, if people just didnt disappear. Even if its a sham. And it shouldnt be *utterly* corrupt. Pay once, not three times.
4) Respect the religion.
If you can do that for all but the super-bad people, then you have judicial legitimacy to beat up some bad guys.. It shouldnt be so fcking hard to make afghan prisons better, with a kind hand. There Dalton Fury has a point, lol, the asian foreign legion is still a god idea.
@Fnord, et al I don't want
@Fnord, et al
I don't want beating people, enhanced interrogations, torture conducted under cover of judicial legitimacy. NO, NO, NO. That would be turned on Ma and Pa America so fast we'd barely have time to register it. Look at the abuses of the Patriot Act. Done - yes - by the FBI, DOJ. The same people we have now in utter folly given interrogations over to....it should have remained an intelligence matter, and a military one. The FBI absolutely is not structured for warfighting, nor should they.
If you want the protection of the law, if you want the law to protect, you cannot give the powers of the spy and the solider to the police and the courts. You might as well dissolve the Republic the day that happens.
[which I wonder may be the point].
No combination of the military and the intelligence agencies could ever hope to establish a police state in the USA. No matter how far we slip.
No, to do that you'd need the cooperation of our 18,000 law enforcement agencies. Which means it would have to be - legal.
This stuff needs to happen off the books, on the down low. Everyone looks the other way, we pretend it never happened. And it must never be "legal". Or illegal.
It's war, and you don't mix war with the law. Cicero couldn't do it, and he was pretty moral and concerned with ethics.
Courts of Appeal, etc... what would they be appealing? That's not clear (imprisonment? Torture?)
SERES - uh...I don't think they make policy. If you're using them as a reference, OK.
Rules that are absolute - there's no such thing in war, and rarely in life. That would merely allow them to expect and possibly adapt.
Finally, most of the ones we could dream of safely releasing have been released. And dream it was, at least 70+ have returned to the Battlefield? These remaining are the hard cases.
Oops...I was so busy
Oops...I was so busy blanting I forgot the link..
Andrew McCarthy on Lawfare
Remember, he spent 10 years trying to prosecute a war through DOJ and the courts. His own opinion; they came up near bupkis. I'd listen to the man.
"How many people are still
"How many people are still here fighting Vietnam?"
Only the ones who can't admit to failure. It strikes at the core of what they think of as their manhood.
is a right f*cking C*nt!
is a right f*cking C*nt!
Terrorist Lawyer A.G
"The Left will get its reckoning. Obama and Holder will be able to take credit with their supporters for making it happen. But because the administration’s allies in the antiwar bar and the international Left will do the dirty work of getting charges filed, the American media will help Obama avoid domestic political accountability. Meanwhile, Americans who sought to protect our nation from barbarians will be harassed and framed as war criminals."...protecting the United States will have become an actionable violation of international law..I’m betting that’s the plan."
"Since then, skepticism
"Since then, skepticism about the war in Afghanistan has intensified along with the rising U.S. and NATO casualty rates, now at the highest level of the eight-year-old conflict."
U.S. Sets Metrics to Assess War Success
By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 30, 2009
"Meanwhile, Americans who
"Meanwhile, Americans who sought to protect our nation from barbarians..."
Elf, shall we have a competition of stereotypes?
You, co-commenter, fit the bill - that is of courses, from the p.o.v. of a 747.
uh oh...looks like even MSM
uh oh...looks like even MSM (WaPo) is admitting it worked...Bammy must need some cover...
WaPo on Torture works
Damn the facts! Save the narrative!
@visitor,
Don't worry. We'll send them to visit your countries security services, which...Bammy...will.
And I'd think you less the barbarian if at least you could build a 747 to crash into us....
How's flight school going?
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