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June 29, 2004
The Left Had Nothing To Do With Stopping Torture In Iraq
Prepare yourself, because this is just an unbelievably horrible story about what used to go on in Iraq before George Bush put a stop to it... "Ibrahim Idrissi has mixed feelings about the recent uproar caused by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib under the US occupation. "As a humanitarian organization, we oppose this," he says. "But these are soldiers who have come to Iraq to fight, not to be prison guards. It was to be expected. Of course, if there are innocent people in there ... it is possible, I guess, that some of them are innocent." If Idrissi seems a bit callous about the fate of the Iraqis in US-run jails, he has probably earned the right to differ. He recalls a day in 1982, at the General Security prison in Baghdad: "They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen." "This is when they brought out his wife, who was five months pregnant. One of the guards said that if he refused to talk he would get 12 guards to rape his wife until she lost the baby. Amer said nothing. So they did. We were forced to watch. Whenever one of us cast down his eyes, they would beat us." "Amer's wife didn't lose the baby. So the guard took a knife, cut her belly open and took the baby out with his hands. The woman and child died minutes later. Then the guard used the same knife to cut Amer's throat." There is a moment of silence. Then Idrissi says: "What we have seen about the recent abuse at Abu Ghraib is a joke to us." The Idrissis, and many families like them, feel that people in Iraq have too quickly relegated the horrors of the old regime to the annals of history. "But it is not the past to us," says Idrissi. "The mother of the person who was killed, his brothers and sisters, they are alive. We are still living the nightmare every day." Keep that in mind when people like Al Gore & Ted Kennedy try to claim that we're just as bad as Saddam. When you hear people like John Kerry, Ted Rall, Michael Moore, & Nancy Pelosi trying to tell you that Bush is a rotten guy, remember that if they had been in charge, Saddam's torture chambers & rape rooms would be open for business and manned by the same sort of people who are sawing the heads off of helpless hostages in Iraq. Better that pregnant women get gang raped and murdered in front of their husbands than for Bush to be the one to get credit for stopping it.... How The GOP National Convention Really Ended Up In New York City
RWN reader (believe it or not) blahblah posted the following in the comments section of the Love In A Time Of Danger post... "oh, i forgot future acts of profiteering - like the future republican convention. Honestly, partisan politics aside. Holding the convention at ground zero is in very very poor taste. It would be like doing a speech about iraq during the funeral of a 9/11 victim. In fact, thats what it is." That's not the first time that line of nonsense has been tossed out and you can expect that you'll hear it a lot more as we get closer to early September date for Republican National Convention. But, how the GOP convention ended up in the liberal Mecca of NYC is a telling tale. One that I think says something about the character of both the GOP and the Democratic Party and the left's penchant for rewriting history to suit their own purposes. You see, not only was the Democratic Party given an opportunity to hold their 2004 convention in NYC, the Dems were seriously considering it -- and with good reason. The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, was making a heck of a pitch... "In search of a lift for the city's sinking economy and morale, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is staging an extraordinarily lavish series of events designed to persuade Democratic National Committee officials to bring their 2004 convention to New York. Mr. Bloomberg has also enlisted the help of a transplanted New Yorker--Bill Clinton--who has recorded a video message with a lower-lip-biting reminiscence of the 1992 Democratic convention in the city, officials involved in planning the events have told The Observer. The video will be shown on a giant screen for party officials during their tour of Madison Square Garden on July 30. When the D.N.C.'s site-selection committee arrives for a three-day tour on July 29, the officials say, party members will dine on catered delicacies from Nobu, Union Square Cafe, Tribeca Grill and Tabla--all at one sitting. They will enjoy a bus tour of the city narrated by New York documentary filmmaker Ric Burns. They will sip cocktails in a rooftop garden atop Rockefeller Center. They will have a private breakfast at Mr. Bloomberg's mansion on East 79th Street. They will be serenaded by actress Sandy Duncan, of Peter Pan fame, who will sing a song written especially for the occasion entitled "The Winning Way." Moreover, out of the four cities the Democrats were looking at, the Big Apple was pledging the most money... "New York had pledged $72 million, and Miami $40 million and Detroit $50 million (and Boston 49.5 million) respectively. So what happened? Why aren't the Democrats doing their "convention at ground zero" as blahblah calls it? Well, there was one little hitch. You see, in an effort to help revitalize NYC after the 9/11 attacks, New York wanted BOTH PARTIES to hold their conventions in the Big Apple. And you have to admit, there's a certain charm to the idea, non? It would give a big financial boost to the city, show that NYC was still the most prestigious in the world, show American unity between both parties -- it was a grand idea. But, you know the Democrats -- everything is viewed through a partisan lens -- even when we're talking about helping NYC recover from 9/11. The New York Post fills in the details... "The mayor asked both parties to hold their conventions in the same city for the first time since 1972. At the time, we thought it a great idea - one that would serve as a vote of confidence in New York's future after 9/11. Indeed, Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe was approached first, with former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo actively backing the city's efforts. But McAuliffe wasn't interested - unless the Democrats were given an exclusive and the GOP shut out, that is. In other words, McAuliffe wanted to make sure that only his party could reap whatever political benefits might accrue from holding a convention here. But when Bloomberg rightly wouldn't play that game, McAuliffe made a few snide remarks about how the mayor should rejoin the Democratic Party and then shuffled off to Boston - home of the Red Sox (and Teddy Kennedy). Meanwhile, the Republicans - to their credit - understood the symbolic importance of selecting their candidate in New York. And so Team Bush - which had wanted to hold the convention in Texas - switched gears." So there you go. Today it's "Oh, the GOP is trying to exploit 9/11 by holding a convention in New York," but back then it was "we'd love to help you recover from 9/11, but only if you'll screw the GOP". Remember how that actually played out because it'll come in handy over the next few months... But, They Say There Was No Relationship Or Ties Between Iraq & Al-Qaeda
Ahem...there are those in the left who claim that contrary to what the Bush administration says, there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. You know what I say to that? "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq." -- From a Clinton Administration Justice Department indictment on Nov. 4, 1998 But, they say there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. "The vice president is saying, I think, that there were connections between Al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein government. We don't disagree with that. What we have said is what the governor (Commission Chairman Thomas Kean) just said, we don't have any evidence of a cooperative, or a corroborative, relationship between Saddam Hussein's government and these Al Qaeda operatives with regard to the attacks on the United States." -- Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic congressman who is the 9/11 commission's vice chairman But, they say there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. "(Abu Musab al) Zarqawi was said to have received medical treatment in Baghdad in May and June of 2002 after being wounded in Afghanistan during the war. His leg was amputated, U.S. officials say, by a surgeon in Iraq. Before the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell pointed to Zarqawi's al Qaeda-affiliated group that he said was operating inside Baghdad, as evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq." -- Today, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was in Iraq before the war began, is leading terrorist attacks against the Coalition and Iraqi people. But, they say there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. "There's Mr. Yasin, who was a World Trade Center bomber in '93 (an attack attributed to Al-Qaeda) who fled to Iraq after that. And we've found since, when we got into Baghdad, documents showing that he was put on the payroll and given housing by Saddam Hussein after the '93 attack-in other words, provided safe harbor and sanctuary." -- Dick Cheney But, they say there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. "Credible reporting states that al Qaeda leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire WMD capabilities. The reporting also stated that Iraq has provided training to al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs." -- CIA Director George Tenet in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 7, 2002 They say there was no relationship or ties between Iraq & Al-Qaeda. However, they're wrong.
June 28, 2004
It's Hard To Cover What's Happening In Iraq From A Baghdad Hotel Room
It practically goes without saying that the coverage of the war in Iraq has been so bad that most people can learn more about what's actually going on from letters written by soldiers in theatre than they can from the New York Times or CNN. But, why is that the case? Is it liberal bias? Are left-wingers who hate the military and hope Bush will fail deliberately slanting the news to hurt their ideological adversaries? Could it be myopic reporters who see every conflict as Vietnam? I'm sure all of those things factor into the miserable job the mainstream press has done covering the war. However maybe the problem is that the press in Baghdad might as well be in Akron, Ohio if they're NOT GOING TO LEAVE THEIR HOTEL. Just read this Johnny-on-the-spot report from Janet Reitman at Rolling Stone and you'll understand... "When I arrive in Baghdad in April, most American journalists are holed up in their rooms, reporting the war by remote: scanning the wires, working their cell phones, watching broadcasts of Al Jazeera. In many cases, they've been reduced to relying on sources available to anyone with an Internet connection. Editorial writers might like to compare Iraq to Vietnam, but reporters on the ground say there's no comparison. In Vietnam, journalists rode Hondas to the front. In Iraq, they rarely venture into the streets. When they do, they hide behind the smoked windows of their armored vehicles, called "hard cars." At least nine Western journalists have been killed since the occupation began, not because they are reporters but simply because they are Westerners. Fear has become an accepted part of life in Baghdad, as inevitable as military roadblocks. While Arabic and European media such as The Guardian and Le Monde manage to cover the war on the ground, American reporters seldom interview actual Iraqis. Instead, they talk to U.S. officials who are every bit as isolated as they are, or rely on local stringers and fixers, several of whom have been killed while working for Americans. "We live in a bubble," grumbles one AP reporter. "If we know one percent of what's going on in Iraq, we're lucky." Most of the journalism coming out of Baghdad is produced within the fortified compound that contains the Sheraton Ishtar and the Palestine Hotel. Together, the two buildings house the bureaus of Fox, CNN, several major newspapers and wire services, as well as a rotating crew of photographers and independent journalists of all stripes. Towering side by side over the Tigris River, the hotels are a virtual fortress, ringed by coils of razor wire and surrounded by fifteen-foot-high cement barriers known as "blast walls." To enter the compound, one must endure body searches at two checkpoints, navigate a corridor that runs alongside a fortified lane for armored vehicles and answer questions posed by the U.S. troops that patrol the compound day and night." Whatever you call sitting in your hotel room, surfing the internet, talking to other liberal reporters, & watching Al Jazeera, it sure isn't reporting the news. Wouldn't it be fascinating to know how many reporters are sending back news from Iraq without talking to any Iraqis except the maids who are cleaning their rooms and the bartenders who are serving them drinks? Oh, but they're in a Baghdad hotel room so they just ooze credibility... Love In A Time Of Danger By Right Thinking Girl
Sean does not like it when I call him a 9/11 Victim. He tells me he's not a victim. His coworkers who died were victims. His wife of ten years was a victim. He was just there when it happened. When we are together, I ask him questions about her. He is patient with me, explaining their relationship, not diminishing it just because she is no longer here, which I appreciate. I listen, trying to understand how it must feel to be in his skin and to live through that day and the thousand days that have passed. A few weeks ago, while in New York, I sat on the counter of his modern kitchen while he poured glasses of red wine. On the fridge was a snapshot of his wife and their son taken in Central Park that September. She's tiny, with a brown ponytail, bright brown eyes, and a natural, genuinely happy grin. I didn't feel like an interloper, exactly. Maybe an observer. A witness. Had things been different, she is the kind of woman who might be one of my best friends. Instead, I'm dating her husband. (Cont) Political Blogs & Websites I Hit 6 Days A Week
One day last week, I posted all the blogs that I visited during that day. Of course, the massive numbers of blogs (& websites) I visit each day (S-Fri) are constantly changing. Some websites I hit every day, some multiple times per week, some once a week, and a few every once in a while. Here are the political blogs and websites I currently consider to be "must see," the ones that I hit every Sun-Fri... Allah Is In The House Dennis Prager In Quotes -- June 24, 2003 -- June 22, 2004
If you're not familiar with Dennis Prager's superb columns, you're in for a treat. I went back through a year of Prager's work and pulled the most poignant quotes. Read and enjoy...(Cont) |
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