BuzzFlash Mailbag for May 15, 2009

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Subject: Expert: Prosecuting Those Who Created Torture Program Will Reduce Attacks Against U.S. and American Troops

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/terrorism-expert-keeping-detainees-in.html

George Washington
California

Subject: guantanamo:

Since October 7, 2001, when the current war in Afghanistan began, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantánamo. Of these, approximately 420 have been released without charge. As of January 2009, approximately 245 detainees remain.[11]

Three have been convicted of various charges:

guantanamo bay,democracy in action:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp

Camp Iguana is a much smaller, low-security compound, located about a kilometer from the main compound. In 2002 and 2003, it housed three detainees who were under 16 and was closed when they were flown home in January 2004. It was reopened in mid-2005 to house some of the 38 detainees who were determined by the Combatant Status Review Tribunals as no longer being "enemy combatants. Karzai (the puppet we put in charge of Afghan) helped to provide financial and military support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.[8] The Mujahideen were secretly supplied and funded by the United States, and Karzai was a contact for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time.[9] His brothers had close personal contact with CIA Director William Casey and George H. W. Bush, who was Vice President of the United States.[citation needed] Karzai's brothers immigrated to the United States;[8] however, Hamid Karzai remained in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation.[10] He accompanied the first Mujahideen leaders into Kabul in 1992 following the Soviet withdrawal.[10] edit] Former Taliban supporter Karzai with American Special Forces in late 2001.When the Taliban emerged in the 1990s, Karzai was at first one of their supporters but later he broke with them and refused to serve as their U.N. ambassador. However on August 20, 1998, after an attempt by the United States to kill Osama bin Laden with a cruise missile, Karzai said,

“ ...there were many wonderful people in the Taliban.[11] ” WOW. End of story. Support truth and demand change. Obama, we're waiting, but not for long.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Pelosi--Intimations of the Harsh Interrogation? So What?

Once again neo-con Republicans prefer to waste people’s time pointing jaundiced fingers at Nancy Pelosi than admit their own foibles. I’m sorry. The American Public is not that stupid. We see through this transparent ploy. We remember the Bush Administration’s bullying of Congress, their faking of the case for war in Iraq. Even then, many congressmen and women challenged the policies of Bush and Cheney, but were rebuffed by a rubber-stamp republican majority. At every juncture, the Administration, rattled its saber to keep Congress from acting as legitimate check on Executive power. Conservative republicans who claim Nancy Pelosi saw, and approved Bush’s policy of so-called harsh interrogations techniques are disingenuous. They merely affect stupidity to deflect just criticism. But the American Public sees through this ruse.

Charles Rand
Austin, TX

Subject: Republican Illogic

Bush and Cheney tortured people. They lied to Nancy Pelosi about the torture. Pelosi believed the lies. Therefore Pelosi was a conspirator and it's all Pelosi's fault. Don't you just love Republican logic?

Marc Perkel

Subject: Scarborough

All Scarborough talked about for THREE HOURS was how Nancy Pelosi keeps changing her story on what she heard at the CIA briefing in 2003. You would think she invented "waterboarding."

When Lawrence O'Donnell brought up how Barry Goldwater had said in 1984, when Goldwater was head of the Intelligence Committee, the CIA "lied" to him and others about how they mined the harbors in Nicaragua, Scarborough shouted him down and said Goldwater didn't have any credibility. OHMYGOD! The Republicans ran Goldwater for President.

The Nancy Pelosi "non-story" is ALL the Republicans have and they now have convinced everyone she is lying. Pelosi has asked them to release the briefing papers from the CIA meeting she attended in 2003, but so far that has not been done. Everyone seems to forget how the CIA fed the Bush administration just what they wanted to hear so we could go to war with Iraq. Doesn't everyone remember all the BS the CIA fed Bush about Saddam Hussein's WMDs? The WMDs that even Bush admitted later on were never held by Saddam Hussein. I'm ashamed to say I was ever a member of the media in the United States.

Bill
Chicago

Subject: Jon Stewart, right again.

Yes, he can, but he won't.

He will cover for tortures and absolve them from guilt, but he won't do anything for gay interpreters.

You can defend torturers for following orders, but you just will not defend a homosexual's right to get out of that military closet.

Yes to right-wing torturers, but no to tax-paying interpreters.

He must have congress' permission to get rid of "don't ask, don't tell", but he can do an end run around congress to embrace the GOP line that no civilian order givers will be punished and no one at the Pentagon will be held accountable.

Karen Webb
Moore, Oklahoma

Subject: Barry's low road

Barry, my Beloved President, you are with all due respect screwing up big time, sir. You have probably lost at least twenty per cent of your support already and you have still got a long way to go! Many Americans and the rest of the world according to what I've read lately, sir, now believe you are just another political cover up Beltway con artist, corporate and war agent. I don't believe in my lifetime I've ever seen a new president fall in line with the Washington crowd as quickly as you have. Your worst mistake was bringing them into the White House and your confidence as soon as you set up shop! Sir you might just set America back to the Bush ages, come 2012, if you do not start delivering on your promises.

Lawton Watson
Springdale AR

Subject: What Does The PBS Documentary "Bloods And Crips" Tell Us?

"That the inner city crisis is not insoluble?"

"Anything else?"

"That charity by itself isn't enough."

"What's missing?"

"Sustained taxpayer-funded programs that can turn things around."

"What do the inner cities get instead?"

"Incarceration of their already disadvantaged and underserved youth."

"Why?"

"To further the divide and rule by way of serving up scapegoats to the masses and, thereby, diverting one's attention from the root causes of inner city immiseration and turmoil."

"Such as?"

"The legacy of slavery and colonialism."

"But can't we count on Mr. Change We Can Believe In to turn things around?"

"Not!"

"Based on?"

"The direction he's taken since becoming president."

"But if not our president and the other politicians, who and what?"

"Us."

"How?"

"We rise up en masse."

"Based on?"

"Time running out."

"Due to?"

"Perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse = doomsday."

"Anything else?"

"Yes we can."

A BuzzFlash Reader

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