Information Paradox

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“Miscarriage of justice” does not even come close to describing what is happening in Washington these days – hemorrhaging abortion is closer to the truth.

Just a few noted stories of late:

One of the youngest detainees at Guantanamo is being pushed to trial before the election year closes…after spending nearly 6 years locked up. 23 year old Mohammed Jawad will face charges for allegedly throwing a grenade which injured two US soldiers and their translator in Afghanistan. The boy was 16 or 17 at the time. While I understand that young men (and women) can be dangerous, this child was most likely recruited and brainwashed from a young age and should be disciplined for his actions, however, torture and being used as a political device should never have been part of the plan. I am not one to jump on the “OMG! They are torturing prisoners of war!” bandwagon, but if even 1% of the stories are true, our behavior is repugnant on every level. There is never a need to torture someone for the purposes of exacting vengeance. I am not a member of military personnel and therefore am wholly unqualified to say whether or not ‘torture’ serves any purpose, but my understanding is that it is to be used to extract information vital to military strategy. What possible information could a 16 year old grunt have that justifies this:

Jawad told Birt that while at Bagram he had been beaten and kicked by guards, shackled and hooded, deprived of sleep, forced to stand for lengthy periods, and shoved down a flight of stairs. Jawad said that military police chained him to the door of his cell, and if he tried to sit or lie down, they would enter his cell and force him to stand. He said he often heard the screams and cries of other detainees. Jawad complained of a broken nose, chest pain and problems in urination as a result of his treatment.

Jawad’s story is not particularly unique but has hit the news because the current administration wants to push his case to trial and secure a conviction prior to the close of the election. Jawad is among a small handful of detainees on whom the administration apparently feels it has enough evidence (manufactured or otherwise) to convict and therefore hold up as an example to the American people in support of the Republican Party’s war success. This is not a success. This is stooping far below the level of the enemy and treating ‘detainees’ as sub-human, even sub-animal. Were these stories reversed and even a hint of our military being treated this way hit the news, I can assure you it would be all the incentive needed to knee-jerk the public into continuing to support the war. Believe me, the current administration would do anything to get their hands on just one story of similar abuse so that they could plaster it in everyone’s faces as justification for lying to us and flushing our economy, our rights and our reputation down the toilet. No such stories have emerged. I am not saying that our prisoners have been treated well – ask any veteran – but my point is that we have done far worse and our reasoning is far less noble.

Next up, Liar McCain – this is an excellent outline of McCain’s history of being a pathological liar. Mitchell Bard did his homework for this piece and provides clear cut evidence of McCain’s lust for power and shows that he is willing to lie, cheat and steal to get it. The GOP has been swinging its purse in McCain’s face and has mesmerized him into agreeing with everything they support, even if that means retracting earlier statements without explanation:

The G.I. Bill wasn’t the only issue McCain was dishonest about when he spoke to the veterans yesterday. He accused Obama of shifting positions on Iraq, when it is McCain who has gone from “they’ll welcome us as liberators” and “the war will be easy” declarations in 2003 to his “we knew it would be a long and tough war all along” laments of 2007. He also talked about Obama wanting to “legislate” defeat, when it is McCain’s narrative of “winning” in Iraq and the success of the surge that ignores the fact that the goals stated by Bush in his January 10, 2007 address to the American people announcing the surge have not been met (a point noted in a report released by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO), which, I noted on June 24, found that things aren’t as rosy in Iraq as McCain would have you believe). And McCain questioned Obama’s judgment while referencing the crisis in Georgia, even though it was the Bush-McCain foreign policy that mired the U.S. in Iraq and left its military too weak to address any other threats, including the one posed by the Russians. (I discussed the U.S. military’s historically low levels of preparedness in more detail here.) Of course, that doesn’t even take into account the fact that one of McCain’s top foreign policy advisers, Randall Scheunemann, has been paid nearly $1 million by the Georgian government since 2004 to lobby for the country (taking a payment as recently as April 17 of this year), which leaves McCain’s tough talk on behalf of Georgia feeling bought and paid for.

Now let’s look at our CIA – yes, the primary job of this organization is secrecy and spy work but who exactly are they supposed to spy on and from whom are they supposed to keep secrets? By all accounts they are spying on us and keeping secrets from our Justice Department. Sweet.

A judge ordered the CIA to prepare a list of witnesses and documents relating to the destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein says he is growing impatient with delays to resolving requests by the American Civil Liberties Union for the information.

“Impatient”???!!! Good night! This has been going on for 3 years – how patient do you think they would be with an average citizen? I can only have horrific nightmares about what might happen to that person. The CIA, on the other hand, can apparently withhold information in order to buy time to destroy any potentially incriminating evidence and none of them are accountable for it.

The single most disturbing fact in all of this is that we (American citizens) outnumber government employees and the current administration by huge numbers, and yet we sit idly by while they put on their twisted circus show to keep us entertained and dispatch pickpockets into the crowd in an attempt to satisfy their addiction to money and power. We prefer to consume ourselves with the antics of Ms. Hilton, Ms. Spears and the Jolie-Pitt family instead of paying attention to what is going on in government today and forcing them all to provide some explanation for their actions or hold them accountable for them.

Our sitting president should be impeached and jailed and along with him, several hundred other employees of the Communist Party, formerly known as the Republican and Democratic Parties. We excuse our behavior by saying “They all lie.” as if that is somehow now acceptable when the reality is that we are lying to ourselves and ‘wishing’ for things to improve rather than actively ensuring our own future. We have put our trust in the wrong hands for far too long and no politician is above scrutiny or accountability for their decisions. I do not care about their personal affairs or their hairstyle or shoe size. I care that they are capable of making rational decision and providing clear explanations for their decisions. I also care they they own up to their mistakes and fix them if needed. ‘Honesty’ is a fluid term when it comes to politicians but ‘integrity’ should be required of all persons seeking any government office.

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