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April 30, 2006
Oh, That's a Good One
Given this, I think I should reconsider the Orwell Awards.
A long-running effort by the Bush administration to send home many of the terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been stymied in part because of concern among United States officials that the prisoners may not be treated humanely by their own governments, officials said.
Posted by zeynep at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)
April 23, 2006
Fallout, Schmallout...
We still have not bothered to look into the consequences of our strike on the Tawitha nuclear research facility in Iraq during the 2003 invasion:
In a report to be posted on the IAEA's Web site this week, the agency states that about 1,000 Iraqi men, women and children in a village near the former Tuwaitha nuclear research facility are living inside an area contaminated by radioactive residue and ruin. "I can only guess that a lot of the damage at Tuwaitha was from bombing," Dennis Reisenweaver, an IAEA safety expert, told NEWSWEEK. "Any time you damage a facility that uses radioactive material, you have potential for spreading contamination."...
Asked to comment on the bombing, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said, "We have no record of that here."
What does it say that the world's biggest, sole superpower cannot be bothered to relocate 1,000 villagers? (Let alone look into what health consequences they may be suffering from?)
Posted by zeynep at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2006
The Best and the Brightest
I read this a few days ago, and have found myself still thinking about it:
For a few hours before the dinner, I called top lobbyists and asked a simple question, "Could Tom DeLay become a lobbyist now that he's leaving government?"The answer was a resounding "Yes." DeLay may have found himself on the wrong end of several ethics committee reports, they said. He may have been too radioactive a few years ago to run for speaker of the House. He may even have been too tainted by his ties to convicted felons to be reelected to Congress this year.
But he could still make a bundle on K Street, they concurred. Leaders of law and lobbying firms made it clear that they would happily hire him, especially if federal prosecutors don't indict him as part of the Abramoff affair.
All this said without irony. ... I don't know if it reflects worse on the politicians or the lobbyists.
Posted by zeynep at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
Innocent. We Know. Tough Luck.
Even the U.S. government admitting that you were mistakenly swept up doesn't get you out of Guantanamo:
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two Chinese Muslims who were mistakenly captured as enemy combatants more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison in Cuba.
So, what's supposed to happen to these people? I guess they don't count, so it doesn't matter.
Posted by zeynep at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)
April 16, 2006
You Know You're A Rogue State When ..
You know you're a rogue state when dissident websites like commondreams have an assortment of "Attack [insert country]? No!" stickers:
At this rate, we might run out of primary colors and start having to use those fashion industry colors. Get your stickers here: available in mauve, sea foam, taupe and teal. Country names organized alphabetically.
Posted by zeynep at 07:26 PM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2006
Welcome to the Club, Iran.
Iran has decided to adopt the techniques of the rich and powerul:
"I officially announce that Iran has joined countries with nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad said today. But more importantly, he might have said, Iran will now join the West in using an even more important technology: modern public relations. They, too, will use the ubiquitous, orwellian writing behind the leader:
Welcome to the club, Iran.
Posted by zeynep at 03:58 PM | Comments (3)
April 09, 2006
Moqtada Gets Image Help From Newsweek
Most days of the week, Moqtada al Sadr, the son of slain shi'ite cleric Al-Sayyid Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq Al-Sadr, has an image problem that he does not look scary enough, or old enough, to be respectable in the Shi'ite religious hierarchy. Compare him to what seems to be a picture of his father in the background:
He is, in fact, rumored to be in his twenties, not in his thirties as he claims. Too young, too chubby cheeked with not a whiff of gray hair in sight. But, no panic Moqtada! Newsweek is here to help!
There, Moqtada as Darth Vader. Both sides should be happy.
Posted by zeynep at 02:13 PM | Comments (1)
April 04, 2006
Well, Rice, Where's the Good News?
Why didn't Condoleeza Rice bring us back some good news, unlike those pesky journalists who don't support U.S. war on Terror?
What? She can't leave the Green Zone?
Well, at least she could report from there:
There, behind high concrete blast walls and razor wire, you find quiet streets and the heart of the American occupation: a double-sized Olympic pool with a palm-fretted patio restaurant, food courts and a giant coffee lounge where lessons in belly dancing and martial arts are offered. ... And all are intended for the Westerners who dwell in increasing comfort here.Inside the Green Zone a few Iraqi politicians live in splendor and permanent American structures are going up—including a new U.S. embassy that did not await the OK of the new government-to-come—and it’s hard to find an ordinary Iraqi anywhere. In fact, several people remarked that speaking Spanish is more useful than Arabic when making one’s way through the palatial embassy grounds.
Oh, boy.
Posted by zeynep at 10:30 PM | Comments (2)
April 01, 2006
What Would a Civil War Look Like?
According to latest counts, the number of Iraqi casualties was at least seventy five a day for the last week.
U.S. forces suffered 30 fatalities in the past month, less than one a day, according to data compiled by the Brookings Institution. It was the lowest total since February 2004, when 21 service members were killed. Combat-related deaths during March numbered 25, declining for the fifth consecutive month. The March numbers could still rise because the military sometimes does not report deaths until several days after they occur.But recent weeks have also been among the most lethal of the war for Iraqi civilians, police officers and soldiers, who were killed and wounded at a rate of about 75 a day, a rate three times as high as at the start of 2004. The U.S. military's count of Iraqi civilian casualties is likely far lower than the actual total, because many attacks go unreported.
Let me try to put that 75 a day in perspectives. If Iraq was the size of the U.S. that would mean a thousand people had violently died a day, everday, for the past month.
Would we then complain that the reporters weren't reporting all the good news?
Posted by zeynep at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)