Boiling Frogs’ 09 Thanksgiving Note to the President
Tuesday, 24. November 2009
Dear Mr. President:
Today is the official Presidential Turkey Pardon Day for 2009, your very first since taking office. I understand you are planning to fly your pardoned bird(s) First Class to California, where they will live at Big Thunder Ranch at Disneyland. How lucky are these birds, how kind of you to value their lives and freedom, and how generous of you to release them.
Mr. President, there are many innocent human beings who have been caged for over six years, under deplorable conditions, including torture – despite being innocent and having done nothing wrong. Their last ten months of detainment and torture have taken place under your watch, per your orders, and with your instructions.
Your Bagram military prison in Afghanistan currently houses over one thousand Afghan detainees who have never been charged, none of whom have ever been given the right to an attorney, and every one of whom has been kept as secret and unidentified.
Even the individuals who were brought there from other nations, and held there for over six years with no charges, are not allowed to have their cases heard or represented.
Former detainees say Bagram resembles a concentration camp, where people are beaten and tortured regularly.
Experts describe it as “Guantanamo‘s lesser-known evil twin“.
One of your own generals, Major General Douglas M. Stone, who was charged by you to investigate Bagram, has been saying that many of these detainees in Bagram are in fact innocent.
Mr. President, to this date you have said and done nothing about this Human Rights Abuse of mammoth proportions. You have never even so much as mentioned Bagram in any of your speeches. Is that turkey you are freeing today entitled to more respect, rights, and freedom, than these long-caged and tortured innocent human beings?
Mr. President, please give these human beings half as much value as you give your turkey(s). Otherwise, Mr. President, be prepared, because next time you frown upon and point to the Chinese Government’s record on Human Rights, next time you speak out on the Iranian Regime’s flawed and undemocratic practices, next time you single out any nation for their absence of Human Rights values, you will be written off as a “turkey”, and your words will be laughed off as nothing but “Turkey Talk”, a meaningless repetition of words, gobble, gobble, gobble…
Respectfully,
Sibel Edmonds, A Boiling Frog
Hannah K OLuthon Says:
Hear, Hear! Just to make this concrete with real people rather than abstract prisoners, consider the case of Dr. Dr Aafia Siddiqui, better known as the Grey Lady
of Bagram or Prisoner 650. Dr. Siddiqui recieved degrees from Brandeis University (not usually seen as a hot-bed of Islamic terrorism) and MIT, as well as studying at the University of Houston in Texas. This case should be front page news, but it just never seems to merit much attention. Even if the charges against her should prove to be true, she certainly deserves due process and a fair trial by a jury of her peers.
But as the case of Sami al Arian showed in Florida, juries tend not to give the desired verdicts in the absence of convincing evidence. The Siddiqui case, and similar cases, raise the question of what kind of society the present day U.S. really is: a constiutional democracy governed by the rule of law, or a medieval theocracy governed by inquisition and trial by ordeal.
T Says:
Well said, Sibel. Many are already laughing.
Here’s another angle on Iraq and Afghnaistan. Many in Congress are making millions off these. Obama is a multi-millionaire. How much is HE making off of these?
Sibel Edmonds Says:
@ Hannah: Excellent comment!
@T:hmmmm, it may be one of those ‘state secrets.’
Let’s disseminate this TGD message…you never know, the MAN himself may get to read it…annd maybe do more than gobble gobble. Wishful thinking? Hey, it’s TGD and ok to be engaed in that!!
remo Says:
This goes way back. We treat ourselves and each other as we treat animals. It goes together. Obama dosn’t seem to matter anymore. He just there, saying what he has to say about one thing, then in the car , off to the next microphone to say the next thing about the next thing. The emperor has plenty of clothes. Its us that don’t.Its the people that are naked.
Kingfisher Says:
“Dr. Siddiqui recieved degrees from Brandeis University…”
I too would lose my mind if I had to go to Brandeis.
KF
Aine Says:
@Sibel : I retweeted your link to this post and sent it along to @BarackObama (you should add that twitter user to your tweets for the President, eh?)
True Oil Says:
11 Years 13 Months and some odd number of days.
Some comic relief added into a very serious subject.
The turkey gets freedom at a spa with a partner to gobble with.
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble……
Core Values, Human Rights, I do Solemnly Swear.
Near vegetative state sitting in the fetals unable to participate.
gobble, gobble, gooble.
11 Years 13 Months and some odd number of days.
One American Citizen.
Ishmael Says:
Happy Thanksgiving to all in the Twilight of our Golden Age. Let’s all take this opportunity to visualize taking our government back to some semblance of logic and rationality.
Bruce Cockburn: Tried And Tested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-N1ftnnHs
Now i’m off to begin the the day’s cooking.
True Oil Says:
11 Years and some odd number of days.
And to think I got in all this trouble for Doing The Math!
Have a Great Holiday everyone.
Sibel Edmonds Says:
@ Aine: Good to have you & your comment here! Hope to have your views/feedback here regularly (like everyday;-)
I have a bunch of names to add to my list over there (twitter). For those of you who’ve been wondering Jeff Stein came out because he is no longer with CQ, and I’ve waiting for his next venture. As for Obama, or any twitt address with his name on it: won’t happen.
My marinated Turkey will be in the oven in about 3 hours; cranberry relish (done last night). Now, time to do the rest: stuffing, potatoes, peas & Pearl Onions (this year no beans), and of course: PUMPKIN PIE…and
I’ll have a some kind of back up meal for my 16-mo daughtergirl, just in case!
Maybe I’ll work out tomorrow…maybe not. Life is too short for stupid guilty feelings over pigging out; at least for me.
Enjoy your feast.
pj98rider Says:
Have a great Thanksgiving all! Sibel, I’m back working out on Monday…kinda easing back. This weekend is for leftovers!
T Says:
Happy Being Thankful for whatever and pigging out on your favorite meal Day
!
remo Says:
amazing. Its like the brits ‘having a cup of tea’and thinkin of england. the whole of amercia on thanksgiving day sits back and thanks the lord Jaisus they are born in USA and don’t live anywhere else their godforsaken armies and industrialists [with local allies] are stomping on heads. hallelujah gobble. Do I still have my house????
just one voice Says:
It started with a plane
That wasn’t really there
Media lies with government spy’s
Cover ups are all the same
Then came those who thought they could fly
Did they see the angels or was it just I
The world watched in horror, but did they really see
911, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Nagasaki; their truth is hidden from thee
The day the twins came tumbling to the ground
Did you notice America was standing down
Number seven where the plans were made
Destroyed in six seconds to everyone’s dismay
A hunt for the Boeing shows no pieces of a flight
Giving new meaning to hidden in plain sight
Shanksville also is something to consider
There was no evidence in that 1994 crater
Weapon of terror was the vicious foe
One without pity, heart or soul
For the terrorist only had one goal
And in Copenhagen you will see your constitution go.
DGH…
Kingfisher Says:
@Sibel,
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=111621
Sibel Edmonds Says:
@ KingFisher: Excellent catch; thank you for the heads up. I will include it in my Weekly Round Up. I guess only a very few of us will get the significance: Armitage + Grossman + Chicago + Azerbaijan, ey? Enough to give me a massive heartburn…post TGD Alkaseltzer anyone?!!Oh well…
willl Says:
Specifics are good.
Sibel, Could you provide an update to this Bush Administration TURKEY.
Quote: from the Internet:
The Un-American Treatment of Sami Al-Arian
By Charley Reese
Dr. Sami Al-Arian as seen in the award-winning documentary “USA vs. Al-Arian.” A list of upcoming screenings is available at the film’s Web site, (www.usavsalarian.com.)
WHEN OUR government acts, it acts in our name. If its acts are lawful and honorable, all’s well and good. When they are dishonorable, we have a choice: Either we dissent or assent, even if by our silence.
In the case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, the Bush Justice Department has acted in a most disgraceful manner. Al-Arian was arrested in February 2003 with great fanfare (U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the arrest). The voluminous indictment in general terms accused al-Arian of supporting terrorism by being the U.S. leader of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian pro-independence group the U.S. government chooses to call a terrorist organization.
The first dishonorable act was to deny him bail. He was held in prison, innocent in the eyes of our law, for two years before they got around to a trial. That lasted five months. The government’s case was so nonsensical that his lawyers did not even present one witness. They rested their case as soon as the prosecution rested its case.
The jury saw it the same way. It voted not guilty on practically all of the counts and reported that it was deadlocked, 10 to 2, in favor of acquittal, on the others. Al-Arian’s reaction to the verdict: “God bless America.” The government should have released al-Arian while it made up its mind whether to retry him on the remaining counts. Instead, he was kept in prison.
By this time, Al-Arian was broke, his family distraught, so he negotiated a plea bargain. In the plea bargain, the Justice Department agreed that what he was pleading guilty to (helping some immigrants) involved no violence, no victims and no support for a forbidden organization. The Justice Department also agreed to a minimum sentence.
UNFORTUNATELY, AL-ARIAN MAY HAVE BEEN DOUBLE-CROSSED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. IS HE STILL IN JAIL? I CAN’T DETERMINE…
Aine Says:
Sibel, I am an RSS subscriber to (I think) all your sites in Google Reader, and I also follow you on Twitter (I’m @Aine on there).