Torture brings sadness and shame to Spokane

Sadly Spokane has a connection to the shame of torture. Torture brings humiliation upon everyone in the United States but for us here that dishonor has hit especially close to home. Here is some info on that disgrace.

Expert has stake in cryptic local firm
Consultants tied to CIA interrogations
Bill Morlin
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=204358

The CIA's Torture Teachers: Psychologists Helped the CIA Exploit a Secret
Military Program to Develop Brutal Interrogation Tactics
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/25/1421214
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The CIA's torture teachers
Psychologists helped the CIA exploit a secret military program to develop brutal interrogation tactics -- likely with the approval of the Bush White House.
By Mark Benjamin
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/21/cia_sere/index.html

Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane
http://www.pjals.com/

Torture is Unacceptable! When we became a nation that tolerates torture among those whom we so casually call our allies we became less. To wash our hands in Pilot’s water bowl was horrific enough but we began to go much farther into depravity and become direct participants in the evil called torture. It’s a dark sinister turn that must be halted and made right. Great disgrace has been brought on our nation because of this hideous practice.

Neocons and their Republican sympathizers like to make bellicose speeches about evil all over the world. Well torture is evil here and everywhere it's practiced and it must never be used for information or punishment or intimidation or for any of the other screwy reasons governments or 'freedom fighters' deploy it. Torture is a cowardly act of weakness.

We need to draw away from this behavior; we need to educate ourselves to the damage caused by mistreatment of prisoners. Far more good can be gained for America and the world by listening to those who value civility and human rights than by ignoring them.I fear we do so at our own peril.

The Disappeared and the Tortured

The continuing horror of the Disappeared

Confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Was David Hicks tortured into confessing?

Bush Lying About History, again

We just got over listening to Bush demolish the history of the Vietnam/American war now he’s doing it to Japanese history of the American occupation of Japan after WWII. What’s next, since Bush has a new French friend in Sarkozy, hauling out the Algerian War * as an example of how to properly run an occupation?

Bush Mispresents Historian's Comments


A WARNING FROM HISTORY Don’t expect democracy in Iraq.
John W. Dower
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.1/dower.html

The Other Japanese Occupation
John W. Dower
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030707/dower


* Algerian War of Independence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War_of_Independence


Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism By Bernard Weiner
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/061403F.shtml

It Can't Happen Here
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html

Defying Hitler
http://www.amazon.com/Defying-Hitler-Memoir-Sebastian-Haffner/dp/0374161577



Neocons and their cohorts are fascists

The Propagandists

gearing nation up for another Vietnam War-like debacle

FOX ATTACKS IRAN

http://foxattacks.com/iran

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Former CIA officer: US to attack Iran within 6 months
David Edwards and Muriel KanePublished: Tuesday August 21, 2007

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_CIA_agent_US_to_attack_0821.html

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‘shock and awe’ bomb Iran?!?

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The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King jr.

"NO TO WAR"! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity. International law, honest dialogue, solidarity between States, the noble exercise of diplomacy: these are methods worthy of individuals and nations in resolving their differences. I say this as I think of those who still place their trust in nuclear weapons and of the all-too-numerous conflicts which continue to hold hostage our brothers and sisters in humanity. At Christmas, Bethlehem reminded us of the unresolved crisis in the Middle East, where two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, are called to live side-by-side, equally free and sovereign, in mutual respect. Without needing to repeat what I said to you last year on this occasion, I will simply add today, faced with the constant degeneration of the crisis in the Middle East, that the solution will never be imposed by recourse to terrorism or armed conflict, as if military victories could be the solution. And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the Prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than twelve years of embargo? War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations. As the Charter of the United Nations Organization and international law itself remind us, war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations.
Pope John Paul II

This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Martin Luther King jr.

WAR

Post-War Bush Forgets Pre-War Bush’s ‘Lessons Of Vietnam’
Prior the Iraq war, George W. Bush claimed that he had learned some powerful lessons from the Vietnam war. Among those lessons were the fact that U.S. must be “slow to engage troops.” “We can never again ask the military to fight a political war,” Bush said, adding that “the cause must be just”:
more at…
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/22/bush-lessons-of-vietnam/

Let’s not do this anymore. Congress has got to develop the guts to stand against this onslaught of tyranny even if it comes at personal risk.

For the sake of the country, for mom and apple pie, we must remove these international criminals from power!!!

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Historian: Bush’s ‘distortion’ of Vietnam ‘boggles my mind.’

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/22/historian-bushs-distortion-of-vietnam-boggles-my-mind/

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Ex-Nixon advisor blasts Bush's Vietnam comparison
David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Wednesday August 22, 2007

'Well, if you've learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?'

more at...

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ExNixon_advisor_rejects_Bushs_Vietnam_comparison_0822.html

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David Shuster Dismantles President Bush’s Viet Nam Rhetoric
By: Logan Murphy

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And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of military government in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries. Now let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945, after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally, this was before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little known fact, these people declared themselves independent in 1945, they quoted our Declaration of Independence in their document of freedom. And yet our government refused to recognize, President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we failed victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard, brutal years, trying to reconquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It was the United States of America, it came to the point that we were meeting more than 80% of the war cost. And even when France started despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that and even after the Geneva Accord, we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought in a real sense to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started supporting a man named Diem, who turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition, people were brutally murdered merely because they raised their voices against the brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence, and then by increasing numbers of United States troops, who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of General Ky, who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we're supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government, and the press generally, won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.

Martin Luther King jr.

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Same stuff different day

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Vietnam-War Pigs

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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The Wall

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

Deportees

Sorry, my poor old computer broke so I'm sharing one with the family which really cuts down on my time to sit here and write.



Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico
August 20, 2007 -
By PETER PRENGAMAN Associated Press Writer
more at...
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=1220945


Immigrants should be treated justly.
The most extreme conservative opinion, regarding undocumented workers and their families, is to arrest them all and ship them back to their country of origin. While there are people here illegally from many parts of the world this is first and foremost a reaction to the Spanish speaking Latinos from South of our border.

Massive roundups of those that are unjustly judged ‘unacceptable’ have never worked well for those being arrested or for the offending country involved. We have recent horror stories from Cambodia and Nazi Germany and in the United States with the Japanese internment and the Trail of Tears both of which were a disgrace. Tearing apart Latino families on our ‘liberty loving’ soil would be comparatively disastrous for obvious reasons for them but also for our national spirit which has suffered enough wounds already, most recently through the Bush years.

These people our not from the far-flung reaches of the world, they are, especially from Mexico, our neighbors who share history with us. They are a part of the New World family, an ingredient of who we are. Their poverty and status has been used against them, as it was in the past for other immigrant groups deemed unacceptable, for the benefit of unprincipled business interests for many generations now.

It is immoral to use people then throw them away when they become inconvenient. Christian (isn't that the kind of country the religious right repeatedly says we have) kindness would dictate care and forgiveness for these people. Those who wear the bible on their sleeve should know very well how the Lord expects us to treat immigrants and all others who fall into need whether financial or medical. The arguments rationalizing this away do not come from God it comes from a much darker, hotter unholy place.

We need to protect the border as Democrats have been screaming about since 9-11, only to fall upon deaf administration ears. Many business interests seem to prefer the status-quo while others want the border closed simply out of unjustified prejudice.

Bring them into citizen ship in a manner that's just.

We need to have strict consistent punishment for all those who hire these people with the intent of misusing them for their own benefit.

Strong penalties need to be given for all those who pay substandard wages.

Any corporation that moves south of the border must pay livable wages and conform to rational environmental controls or risk a high tariff or lose the ability to trade with the United States. We must realize US involvement in many of the economic and political hardships suffered by others who share the Americas. We have a moral duty to work to make things right and that doesn’t begin with exploitation.

Any other solution that comes from Congress based on economic maltreatment or cloaked on hate and paranoia is unacceptable.

Cheney on Iraq Quagmire

When we made these same arguements before the current occupation of Iraq we were called un-American and traitors. We were right then and we are still right now about the warnings we are raising about an ill-advised attack on Iran.

These guys all knew ahead of time what would happen when we invaded Iraq and they did it anyway. WHY?
OIL?
WAR PROFITEERING?
PNAC ROAD TO IMPERIALISM?
PATH TO TOTALITARIAN CONTROL IN U.S?
ALL OF THE ABOVE?
IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE U.S.?
NOOOO!

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Secret Downing Street Memo - John Bourne Harbour http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/videolinks/videolink_18.html

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Conservatives like to claim that the liberals are to blame for the problems in Iraq. Complete nonsense.

The Republicans were in charge;

when warnings about terrorism were ignored before 9/11,

when Afghanistan and the battle against the Taliban and Al Qaeda was abandoned,

when a war of choice against a country that was not an imminent threat was begun,

when a war in Iraq was begun based on lies,

when this ill-advised war was begun without a cultural understanding of the people,

when far too few troops were used for that illegal action in Iraq,

when lawlessness and looting were tolerated

,when the Iraq army was disbanded,

when troop armor and gear were kept sup-par for the mission,

when a forced vote was held too early before Sunni concerns were addressed,

when torture was allowed to become administration policy,

when illegal detentions became administration policy,

when spying on Americans became administration policy,

when support for war profiteers became administration policy,

when habeas corpus became something not available to all,

when posse comitatus became abandoned,

when spying on American citizens became an okay thing to do,

when a culture of corruption was allowed to flourish at home,

when congressional oversight was abandoned,

when doing the same failed thing over and over without success became the plan,

when our war dead became something to hide in shame,

when the injured military and their families were treated without proper care or respect,

when terrorism was allowed to grow world wide while claiming success,

when fear became a weapon of propaganda against the American people,

when failure became always someone else’s fault,

and when lies and propaganda became an acceptable substitute for truth when dealing with the public.

For these reasons and many more Iraq has become the losing mess it now is.

For these reasons and many more impeachment is well deserved for the Bush/Cheney cabal.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich # 1 choice

Dennis Kucinich

Since Al Gore seems to stubborn to enter the race and help the nation out I have decided for the Democratic primary to support the candidate who most closely represents the issues and concerns that I have. It’s a slam-dunk for Dennis Kucinich http://www2.kucinich.us/. Every issue, every debate he’s on top of it and I have far fewer disagreements with him than any of the other candidates. I’ll vote for whomever gets the nomination and every choice on the Democratic side is many times better than the fools and ghouls running for the Republican nomination

I really would like to see Dennis get the nomination but, if not, and it sure looks like Hillary at this point I want his values and positions to be a strong part of the Democratic Party platform. I believe supporting him is the best way to get that message across.

Lets let Dennis speak for himself.

No Nukes ever again as an Instrument of War

This is the week the bomb was used against real people in a real act of war. Now it is being threatened against other nations, primarily Iran, as a first strike weapon. I can’t help but worry that the more run-down and over-used our military becomes the more attractive these weapons look to those in charge.

from The Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/

Pakistan is a Big Problem

The Cheney/Bush administration screwed the Afghanistan people and our troops who were fighting the terrorists who really did attack our country on 9/11 by running away from the ‘war on terror’ hijacking it for neoconservative desires in Iraq and at home. The Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden is still free and in charge of Al Qaeda which is gaining strength and free reign in western Pakistan. We can’t do anything to curtail their growth because we are bogged down in Iraq while seriously running down the morale and readiness of our military. Our continuing occupation of Iraq is harming us while allowing Al Qaeda to grow in organization, strength and territory to be able to set up training camps along with a platform to attack us.

General Pervez Musharraf is a military dictator who acquired power by way of a coup. He’s just the latest example of ‘our dictator in the pocket’, at least until it all falls apart. Human Rights in Pakistan are horrendous, they have weapons of ‘mass destruction’, those who would attack us are educated, harbored and trained within their borders, and bin Laden is protected there.

So we are stuck with a dictator with the Bomb, pointed at India, facing a Taliban-like insurgency that will have the Bomb, pointed at whomever, if they launch a successful coup. There is general dissatisfaction and protest among the population who Musharraf abuses for his own power-lust. The ‘declare success then cut and run’ tactic employed by the Bush administration in Afghanistan so we could engage in their dirty little occupation in Iraq has left this area of the globe much more unstable. And were left coddling another human rights violating dictator for short term gain hoping he will do for us what we should have done ourselves.

If we know where Bin Laden is we should get him regardless of what Musharraf might say but to launch any military attack against Pakistan after the mess which was made in Iraq would be fool hardy at best especially with this current group we have occupying the Whitehouse. The next administration is left with diplomacy, Barack Obama , with human rights as its cornerstone. In all international dealings most feel that our national interests should be first and foremost. But when we side with a dictator against the best interests of the countries own citizens it always does them and us a great disservice.

From Amnesty International…
Annual Report
PAKISTAN
http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport.php?id=ar&yr=2007&c=PAK

from Human Rights Watch…
Pakistan's General Problem
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/27/pakist16263.htm

Is There a Human Rights Double Standard?US Policy Toward Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/14/usint16481.htm

Pakistan: Pandering to Extremists Fuels Persecution of Ahmadis
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/06/pakist15848.htm

Bill Moyers on the continuing problems in Afghanistan.

If our presence in Iraq is futile or more destructive to them and us than our absence then we must leave.