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If they represented America’s power then Blakley, like most medics, represented its conscience. The medic carried an M-4 carbine. But an Iraqi lieutenant once told Blakley that his real weapon was his medical kit, because he and it exposed what the local insurgents did not have and would never be.
U.S. military advisers forged close relationships with Iraqi soldiers. - Slate Magazine
The story of one death, of many, in Iraq. Reading about one death gives me a huge lump in the throat and teary eyes. I can’t even comprehend that there are countless stories like this of lives lost, American and Iraqi, military and civilian. I can’t even comprehend that war is possible, thinking this way.
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Above all, Diveroli cared about the bottom line. “Efraim was a Republican because they started more wars,” Packouz says. “When the United States invaded Iraq, he was thrilled. He said to me, ‘Do I think George Bush did the right thing for the country by invading Iraq? No. But am I happy about it? Absofuckinglutely.’ He hoped we would invade more countries because it was good for business.
The Stoner Arms Dealers | Rolling Stone Politics
Pineapple Express meets The Social Network meets Lord of War? I’m sure this story about stoners in their early 20s who won a $300 million defense arms contract has been greenlighted and will star someone like Jesse Eisenberg or Andrew Garfield. Wait til the inevitable movie or spend time with this long read.
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A three-page F.B.I. memorandum, dated Oct. 21, 2010, also encouraged agents to use a broad interpretation of public safety-related questions. It said that the “magnitude and complexity” of the terrorist threat justified “a significantly more extensive public safety interrogation without Miranda warnings than would be permissible in an ordinary criminal case.
F.B.I. Tells Interrogators in Terror Cases to Delay Miranda Warning - NYTimes.com
This is absolutely unconscionable, especially since it’s political pandering to quell the Right. I don’t know how much Mirandizing or not affects a suspected terrorists’ inclination to provide information, but I do know Federal authorities use anti-terrorism laws to prosecute ordinary citizens for non-terror crime.
I’ve written about the case of a chemist who tried to poison her husband’s pregnant mistress by dabbing a toxic substance on her mailbox. She was prosecuted under a Federal law implementing the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention instead of attempted murder by the state of Pennsylvania. Depending on the interpretation of this FBI memo, this woman could not get her Miranda warning as a suspected terrorist.
So super disappointed in the Obama administration and Eric Holder for going this far. Don’t give up your Miranda rights! Ask for a lawyer and don’t say anything at all if you get arrested.
Posted on March 27, 2011 with 2 notes
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However, I’ll never forget that day in September 2009 when I discovered them. I instantly felt sick, and eventually vomited because I felt so badly physically and emotionally that day knowing that I worked with this person and this was the material that I believe was ‘reverse-engineered’ and used in part to design the torture program. When I found the Jessen papers, I made several copies and sent them to my friends as I thought this could be the smoking gun, which proves who knew what and when and possibly who sold a bag of rotten apples to the Bush administration.
EXCLUSIVE: CIA Psychologist’s Notes Reveal True Purpose Behind Bush’s Torture Program
Gutting. The media are busy congratulating the allied nations on their air strikes to protect Libyans from their dictator (whose supposed good behavior was enough to get Libya taken off the terror state list a few years ago) that they’re not picking up on this story at all.
I remember Obama saying closing Guantanamo was one of the first things he will do as President. I didn’t think it would happen smoothly, but I would have guessed back in 2008 that the process would have begun by 2011. I certainly didn’t think he would order air strikes that was supposed to be a surgical hit that has been dragging for days.
Posted on March 26, 2011 with 12 notes
Source: truth-out.org
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Imaginary Lines From an Imaginary 9/11 Sex and the City Episode | The Hairpin
This needed to be longer.
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Before and after of Tarok Kolache, a village in Afghanistan, was completely destroyed by 25 tons of bombs. At a loss of words here…
(Photo via Wired)
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Skaarup, the foreign policy spokesman for the right-wing Danish People’s Party, wants to include shots of sunbathing women in a video that will be screened as part of an immigration test for potential citizens. According to Skaarup, footage of topless women would help emphasize the point that Denmark is an open, free, liberal-minded society, and that hard-line Muslims may want to reconsider their decision to move there.
Can Topless Women Keep Muslim Extremists Out of Denmark? | The Atlantic Wire
There are many holes in this argument, but I can’t fault this guy for creative thinking. Considering Guantanamo prisoners request women’s faces blacked out in their newspapers, this might be a kinda viable anti-fundamentalist terror strat?
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Afghan police women at target practice.
(Photo via National Geographic)
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As Dr. Jehan El-Bayoumi was attending to Holbrooke in the emergency room at George Washington University Hospital, she told him to relax and asked what she could do to comfort him, according to an aide who was present. Holbrooke, who was in severe pain, said jokingly that it was hard to relax because he had to worry about the difficult situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. El-Bayoumi, an Egyptian-American internist who is Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s physician, replied that she would worry for him. Holbrooke responded by telling her to end the war, the aide said. The aide said he could not be sure of Holbrooke’s exact words. He emphasized Tuesday that the comment was made in painful banter, rather than as a serious exhortation about policy.
Checkpoint Washington - Holbrooke’s last words on the Afghan war
Context is everything, especially for the final words you’ll utter in your life.
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Yemeni printer bomb package contents. The plot was called Operation Hemorrhage— bleeding America to death with “1000 cuts”—and it cost $4200 to put together.
(Photo via Washington Post)
I was laid off 2 days before my birthday in 2009, a dismal blessing. I miss health insurance and payroll, but I haven't bought bread since the pink slip because I have time to bake.
Sometimes I'm a serious job hunter, sometimes a serious slacker, but mostly, I'm an underemployed, freelance Jaqueline of many trades including writing and dogsitting. Either way, I scrapbook my finds and activities here for your benefit and amusement.
Follow me on Twitter if tv/movie/pro-cycling spoilers and unplanned live tweets won't hail on your parade. And yes, I do work blue so don't be huffy with me if you don't like cursing or merciless roasting of public figures.
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