Monday, May 17, 2004

Posted here Monday, May 17, 2004 at 10:35:47 PM     I highly recommend the following first hand account by a person running a group ofn 150 ameicans training Iraqi police. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_16.php#002962 and also Stratfor's detailed plans for what should happen. I deeply disagree with this, but it is important to struggle through. http://www.stratfor.com/corporate/index.neo?page=center&;storyId=232011 Tomorrow I will post some thoughts about this series of proposals. ********

Posted here Monday, May 17, 2004 at 12:31:31 PM     Good background on US "commissions" to maintain control in Iraq after June 30. http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=9556&;TagID=2 ********

Posted here Monday, May 17, 2004 at 9:07:30 AM     Review and background of the Michael More movie about Bush and Iraq, Saudis', etc. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/movies/17MOOR.html And the Times has an editorial on american prisons and the need for reform, one of the better aspects to come out, as  the Iraq detainees problems appears to be systematic, across all military detention centers. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/opinion/17MON1.html And Newsweek has an article confirming (independent sources) the New Yoruker article by Hersh http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989422/ The Bush administration created a bold legal framework to justify this system of interrogation, according to internal government memos obtained by NEWSWEEK. What started as a carefully thought-out, if aggressive, policy of interrogation in a covert war—designed mainly for use by a handful of CIA professionals—evolved into ever-more ungoverned tactics that ended up in the hands of untrained MPs in a big, hot war. Originally, Geneva Conventions protections were stripped only from Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. But later Rumsfeld himself, impressed by the success of techniques used against Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, seemingly set in motion a process that led to their use in Iraq, even though that war was supposed to have been governed by the Geneva Conventions. Ultimately, reservist MPs, like those at Abu Ghraib, were drawn into a system in which fear and humiliation were used to break prisoners' resistance to interrogation. ********