History As Quaint

The Constitution, that ol' Rule of Law, Geneva Conventions, oh, get over it. We now have the revised facts according to the occupied White House. In this new and updated version of history, the intelligence failure made us go to war with Iraq, and those dear folks who wanted to keep us safe from the GWOT are innocent of torture, since they did it for U n' Me.

The Gonzales memo which followed pressure on the executive branch to keep torture perpetrators from any penalty for their atrocities has now become credo for the Attorney General.

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey yesterday indicated that President George W. Bush would not be issuing pre-emptive pardons in the case of officials implicated in torture or other abuses in the "war on terror". If so, this is welcome news. Amnesty International was among a number of organizations that sent a joint letter to President Bush on 3 December opposing resort to any such pardons.1

Welcome though such news would be, the Attorney General's reasoning gives cause for concern. There is "absolutely no evidence", he said, that "anybody who rendered a legal opinion" on interrogation policies "did so for any reason other than to protect the security in the country and in the belief that he or she was doing something lawful. In those circumstances, there is no occasion to consider prosecution and there is no occasion to consider pardon."

Given what we now know about US conduct in the "war on terror", and the previously secret legal opinions, to accept the Attorney General's reasoning would be to allow the government to perpetrate human rights violations with impunity, so long as they are carried out in the name of national security and the perpetrators claim they did not realise what they were doing was unlawful. Arguments excusing gross human rights violations in the name of national security are historically familiar. Indeed, the inclusion in various treaties of the obligation to bring all perpetrators of torture and similar violations to justice was intended to reject such arguments categorically.

Further, ignorance of the law is generally no excuse or defence for criminal charges. After the incidents of torture and other detainee abuses became widely known, however, the administration and congress enacted a special statutory 'ignorance of the law' defence, seeking to immunize US personnel from the criminal responsibility they otherwise would have faced, to which the Attorney General was likely referring. Yet to the extent this defence further contributes to impunity for crimes under international law such as torture and certain other acts of ill-treatment of detainees, it constitutes a further violation of the USA's international obligations and must be immediately reversed.
(snip)
The USA is required by international law to respect and ensure human rights, to thoroughly investigate every violation of those rights, and to bring perpetrators to justice, no matter their level of office or former level of office. Victims of human rights violations have the right under international law to effective access to remedy and reparation. (Emphasis added.)

Sadly, there has been increasing familiarity with the crimes, to the point that some diminution has occurred. We need reminding that torture is not acceptable, and that excuses are not reasons. The Attorney General was put in a place where for awhile he can block the law, but he will never do away with it entirely. Legal manipulation and vocal quibbling is not adequate to erase crimes.

The feeling of being above the law has gained ground in this White House much as it did in the Nixon years, when the then executive declared that if he did it, it was not a crime. Documents relating to the war on Iraq have shown to have been altered and we can be sure those public documents destined for incarceration in the SMU Liebury will not be trustworthy, either.

Instead of the White House Web site maintaining an updated list while preserving copies of the old ones or issuing revised lists in addition to the original posts, the White House removed original documents, altered them and replaced them with backdated modifications that only appear to be originals.

The littlest minds that are presently at the helm in this country have deluded themselves into thinking they can choose their own facts, and when the facts don't serve their purposes make up some they like. The bubble is about to burst. Facts are still the same here in the real world.

Outrage and indignation are the only reaction possible to the horrors the occupied White House has committed. This bloody legacy should never be regarded with complaisance.

Forgotten Or Inconvenient Truths

Not that long ago, the news was focused on tragedy in Burma, where Cyclone Nargis had inundated much of the lush lowlying areas and people were starving, while the generals refused to allow aid in from western nations making the offer of help. American ships stood by for weeks, with supplies, and finally left. Few supplies appear actually to have reached the distressed farming communities that had been devastated.

Soon the 20th anniversary of the uprising of 1988 will be celebrated there, not of course by the junta, but by the remaining dissidents. At least 2050 of them are in prison, and about 900 more have been added to their number recently.

When the cretin in chief visits, will he repeat his performance in China now, where he ignores the denial of human rights and recent public executions of suspected disrupters of the Olympics? Like China, Burma is quietly clamping down on those anticipated to be trouble if they are not suppressed.

Burma's military rulers have detained at least 900 activists and dissidents in the past 10 months, in addition to the over 1,000 prisoners of conscience that it arrested since it brutally cracked down on a popular uprising in August 8, 1988, Amnesty International said.

The AI, in a press release on Sunday, said, "Around 900 people have been imprisoned in the past 10 months."

The AI said Burma's military rulers after violently suppressing a nation-wide protest led by students in August 8, 1988, has continuously arrested and detained dissidents but it has accelerated its rampant arrest since September 2007 protests, adding to the list of some 2,050 political prisoners currently languishing in prisons across Burma.

The Burmese military junta, despite being engaged by the United Nations, through the General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions and by sending some 35 official missions by the Special Advisor, Special Rapporteur and their predecessors, continues to arrest dissidents who seemingly threaten their rule, the AI said.

Benjamin Zawacki, AI's Myanmar Researcher said, the number of political prisoners in Burma has significantly increased following the September protests last year, the ruling junta's May 2008 referendum and the fall out of Cyclone Nargis on Burma's coastal divisions in May.

"Nothing speaks louder of the government's poor faith than the fact that there are more long-standing political prisoners in Myanmar [Burma] now than at any other time since those protests," Zawacki said in the statement.

The AI, in its statement, urged the United Nations to create pressure for the release of 20 prominent political prisoners including veteran journalist U Win Tin, student leader Min Ko Naing and the highly revered Rev. U Gambira, who led the monks on the streets in September 2007.

The United Nations, meanwhile, is set to send two of its envoys – Undersecretary General for political affairs, and Human Rights Special Rapporteur - in August.

The AI said the UN should take stronger measures to obtain the release of prisoners of conscience including Win Tin, who were detained since the military's brutal crackdown on the August 8, 1988 protests.

The House last week passed a measure calling on China to withdraw support from the government of Burma, and meetings are scheduled Tuesday for the U.S. representatives to meet with Burmese dissidents in Thailand. This time, it is unlikely that Laura Bush will be the acting head of state, though she will visit a refugee camp on the border with Thailand.

The photo-ops favored by this occupied White House avoid the ugliness they let go on, and that they bring on. The atrocities are going to continue until the U.N. acts in accord with the civilized countries. It is past time for those civilized countries to include a revitalized U.S.

Decency requires a response to barbarism.

Attacking the Gaie For Profit

Who has some good awards of the Darwin variety for Flat Earth Sexuality Comprehension. Water Tiger gave out the Golden Hoo Ha already this a.m. Do I hear an Iron Hide Your Head In The Sand, anyone?

In Dallas, we will have the convention of psychologists selling their treatment of gays as ornery. Yes, treating homosexuality as a stubborn rebellion against straight types. That loud quacking you hear is not those voices in your head again.

Hundreds of therapists who view homosexuality as a treatable disease are expected in Dallas-Fort Worth for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality conference on Oct. 26-28.

“There will be several hundred quacks,” said Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, a national organization devoted to exposing practitioners of ex-gay therapy as charlatans. “The whole flock will fly down south from all over.”

In response, Truth Wins Out is organizing a protest at the Marriott Dallas-Fort Worth Airport North hotel, where the conference is scheduled to take place. A conference call between leaders of local LGBT groups and Besen was held on Thursday, Oct. 4, to arrange plans for the protest, which will be announced soon.

NARTH, which is based in Encino, Calif., advocates the reclassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973.

NARTH was founded in 1992 by three therapists with the mission “to continue the scientific study of prevention, treatment and problems associated with homosexuality.” The founders contended that the APA “undermined the scientific integrity of the mental health profession” by succumbing to the demands of gay activists.
(snip)
The NARTH conference schedule includes seminars such as “A Proposal for the Development of Treatment Guidelines for Unwanted Same-Sex Attractions,” “The Role of Free Will in Same-Sex Behavior,” “The Interpersonal Approach to the Psychological Care of Men with Unwanted Homosexual Attractions” and “Religious Values, Science and Same-Sex Attraction.”

NARTH’s president, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, claims no “man can ever be truly at peace in living out a homosexual orientation.” The group’s deceased cofounder, Dr. Charles Socarides described homosexuality as a “purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender distinctions in society.”

Besen described NARTH’s therapists as “con artists” who have developed anti-gay therapy procedures as means of reaping big profits.

“It’s a good business model,” Besen said. “Ethical therapists won’t do this work. It’s a way for them to get perpetual clients who never get any better. It’s a big scam. As therapists, they are the worst of the worst.”

I have a problem with this description. Aren't there minimum standards for therapists, which could exclude those practicing erroneously? And can't they be invoked to keep the quacks from doing business?

It's quite possible that redneck style families embarrassed by the discovery that Johnny/Johnnie is gay might take them to some of these practitioners of sleaze. The kids can be irreparably damaged.

Maybe licensing authorities could descend on the convention en masse and urgently re-evaluate their licenses. A lot of damage could be prevented.

Another picture from Albuquerque

The Eschafair group. Left to right, seated: Woody, flory, Uncle Smokes, mena, Diane, tena. Standing, left to right: Olav, my nephew Kevin, me.

A Free Press Needs Your Help.

Our press has its problems, and we all have to wince when we see fiction reported as fact, but now a worldwide free press is getting a push into prominence by Amnesty International, which is calling on blogs to add their voices to a shoutout for freedom of expression.

Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International.

The human rights group also wants web log writers to highlight the plight of fellow bloggers jailed for what they wrote in their online journals.

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"Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege - but it's a right that needs defending," said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. "We're asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government."

As Diane noted in her post BLOG OVERSIGHT:

For the last three years, in an unprecedented historical phenomenon, we’ve been able to hear from frontline front-line soldiers directly. The combat, the boredom, the loneliness, the camaraderie, their beliefs, their frustrations, their accomplishments. From Iraqis they encounter, suspicion and hatred as well as smiles and gratitude.

...It has been a rich picture unlike anything you know about Iraq if all your information comes from newspapers and TV.

Now, the military has assigned a National Guard unit to monitor the Internet for possible violations of operational security - OPSEC, as they call it.

We take our freedom to express ourselves and to read a variety of viewpoints too much for granted. Because it is being encroached on, now is the time to stand up for our rights, and to let others know they need to as well. Now, before there are further restrictions on freedom of expression, bloggers need to join their voices together in insisting we can and should speak out for those who can't, and shine a bright light on the offenses against our world's free press.

from Ruth