United States News Digest
Neo-Cons Responsible for Torture of Iraqi Prisoners
Commentator William Pfaff, writing in the May 12 International Herald Tribune that it is the policy of violence of the neo-conservatives, including Vice President Dick Cheney, which is where the blame lies for the use of torture against Iraq prisoners.
Although he does not use the word, Pfaff writes in terms similar to Lyndon LaRouche's use of the term "beast-man," saying that the policy predated even the Sept. 11 attacks and the Administration's disregard for international law. The same type of torture was used in Afghanistan as well. "All this is consistent with an attitude toward violence characteristic of the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, who have for years insisted that history is made through violence, and that in the national cause a governing elite has the right to mislead the public in order to achieve goals that the leaders alone are in a position to understand," Pfaff wrote.
He continued: "This lies behind the administration's pressure for violent action to 'change regimes' and intimidate so-called rogue nations, constantly describedhowever implausiblyby the President and Vice President as threatening mass destruction attacks on the United States, jeopardizing national survival. Iraq had to be attacked before it was 'too late'.
"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly says that those who oppose the United States in Iraq and elsewhere have to be killed. He does not speak in terms of defeating them, much less negotiating with them....
"Dehumanizing language has deliberately been employed to describe all those who oppose the U.S. The cumulative effect of this has conveyed to the American troops that international and national norms of lawful conduct have been suspended...." Pfaff concludes that this "moral debauchery came down the chain of command from Washington."
'America's Military Coup': Officer Corps Turns on Rumsfeld
A former senior adviser to the Clinton Administration, now with Salon.com, penned a piece in the May 13 London Guardian on how the U.S. officer corps is turning against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The piece, by Sidney Blumenthal, is headlined "America's Military Coup."
Retired General William Odom, now at the Hudson Institute, is quoted saying: "It was never in our interest to go into Iraq. It is a diversion from the war on terrorism; the rationale for the Iraq war [finding WMD] is phony; the U.S. army is overstretched and being driven into the ground; and the prospect of building a democracy is zero. In Iraqi politics, legitimacy is going to be tied to expelling us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation. We can't afford to fail, that's mindless. The issue is how we stop failing more. I am arguing a strategic decision."
Another military figure told Blumenthal that Rumsfeld was "detested," and that "if there's a sentiment in the army it is: Support Our Troops, Impeach Rumsfeld."
Blumenthal then references an essay by Lt. Col. Charles Dunlap, which had received a prize in 1992 from Gen. Colin Powell. The title of the piece was "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012," which was a cautionary tale of how the U.S. military launched a coup because of the failures of the government. The paper is in the form of a letter written by a retired officer who was executed because he opposed the coup. Then he cites this quote: "The catastrophe that occurred on our watch took place because we failed to speak out against policies we knew were wrong. It's too late for me to do any more, but it's not for you."
Kerry Assails Bush on Iraq
On May 12, Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry in an appearance on the "Imus in the Morning" program, made a slight shift from his usual cautious approach, and charged that President Bush is running "an extraordinarily mismanaged and ineptly prosecuted war."
Kerry proposed two immediate changes: oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and delay court-martial hearings for the American soldiers charged with mistreating the prisoners. "I think it's sort of a panicked move to try to display to the Arab world and others that we are going to, you know, do things immediately," Kerry said of impending hearings. "But I think you have to think of the morale of the military and the chain of command."
Kerry said of ousting Rumsfeld during wartime that it would not hinder efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he offered up a few candidates to replace the Defense Secretary: GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz) and John Warner (Va). McCain reportedly said "no thanks, no thanks," when asked to comment. Kerry also named Democratic Sen. Carl Levin (Mich) also as another choice for Secretary of Defense.
In a New York Post column, Eric Fettmann wrote that the Democrats are getting panicked by Kerry and his not having a message or any passion, and that he has yet to inspire the Democratic base of the party. Kerry has not gained much in the polls, even in the face of the most politically damaging months for the Bush Administration.
U.S. Begins Prisoner Abuse Probe in Afghanistan
The U.S. launched an investigation of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan following accusations by a former Afghan police officer, Sayed Nabi Siddiqui, according to Xinhuanet May 12. Sayed Nabi said he was subjected to sexual abuse, taunting, and sleep deprivation at a U.S. base in Gardez City in August 2003. Sayed Nabi Siddique was accused of no greater crime than corruption.
Another two Afghan detainees, according to reports, died during interrogations at the U.S. base in Bagram Air Base in 2002, but no statement has been issued in this regard.
Sayed Nabi's report had prompted the Afghan Human Rights Commission to ask the permission to visit U.S. detention centers at Kandahar and Bagram Air Base where thousands of U.S. troops were based. The U.S. military has turned down the Rights Group's request.
When the U.S. military spokesman Tusker Masanger was asked why the U.S. interrogators strip the detainees naked, Masanger said they do that to make sure that the detainee "does not have explosive material or dangerous weapons with himself."
One-Tenth of All U.S. Prisoners Serving Life Terms
The Sentencing Project reports that the number of prisoners serving life sentences in state prisons has increased 83% since 1992, the New York Times reported May 12. Twenty percent of New York and California inmates are serving life sentences. Growth in the crime rate fell 35% in the same period, but the increase in life sentences are a result of "more punitive laws adopted by Congress and State legislatures." Only 70% of the 127,677 serving life sentences were convicted of murder. The remainder include crimes such as the one committed by Leandro Andade under California's "three strikes you're out" law: a felony conviction for the theft of children's video tapes he intended to give as Christmas gifts for his nieces. The Supreme Court recently upheld his sentence.
Wolfowitz Asks Congress for More Money for Iraq War
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee, on May 13, that the Pentagon needs the $25 billion supplemental funding, requested the previous week, for continued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He told the Committee that the amount of the supplemental request will surely be much larger than $25 billion, since the first $25 billion that the President asked for would only cover the first six months of fiscal year 2005. Wolfowitz stated that the amount would be about $50 billion; some lawmakers are saying that this figure could be too low.
Remember, that it was the same Wolfowitz that said one year ago that they didn't need any more funding for the war, because it would pay for itself.
House Republicans Angry with Bush
The Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill, reported, on May 12, that when House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill) criticized the Administration in a meeting with House Republicans, they broke out in applause, according to a participant. "Hastert was frustrated and disappointed that he had not been dealt with openly and fairly, and given accurate information," the Congressman told The Hill. "He was not so much speaking to the conference, as he was speaking for the conference."
Issues include the transportation bill, a corporate tax bill, and issues on the Iraq war. Hastert in March complained that the administration was failing to sell the Congress on its economic policies. Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) had dinner with Bush and Cheney on May 12 to "mend fences," says The Hill.
Senate Rejects Extending Unemployment Program
A bipartisan attempt to extend an unemployment insurance program that expired last December failed by one vote in the Senate on May 11. The amendment, cosponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) would have extended temporary unemployment benefits until November 2004, for workers who have already exhausted their normal 26 weeks of benefits but are still unemployed. The amendment went down to defeat when Senate Budget Committee chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla) raised a point of order against the amendment for increasing spending to a level greater than that allowed by the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution. Sixty votes are required to overcome such a point of order, but supporters of the amendment were only able to round up 59.
Nickles and other opponents of the Cantwell-Voinovich amendment argued incredibly that with the supposed recovery now under way, extended unemployment benefits are no longer needed. Nickles claimed that 1.1 million new jobs have been created in the last eight months and that jobless claims are also declining. He also charged that the amendment would have changed the definition of a high-unemployment state such that the extended benefits would have been more widely available, thus increasing the cost of the measure.
Cantwell replied by telling the Senate that "This is a debate about 1.5 million people who have lost their jobs, and have not been able to find work, and have been without benefits." As for Nickle's complaint that the amendment would cost $9 billion, she noted that the underlying bill, a bill to make changes in U.S. tax law to comply with World Trade Organization rulings, included $9 billion for the oil and gas industry, $2.2 billion for clean coal, $2.8 billion for synthetic fuel, and other expensive programs. "Where are the priorities of my colleagues," she said. "Where are the priorities in passing this kind of legislation when we know that American men and women need our help and support?" The underlying bill passed, at the end of the day, by a vote of 92 to 5.
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