Friday, February 22, 2008

With Heads Up Asses a Candle is Needed to Guide the Way

So we used some airstrips in BritishLand (Diego Fucking Nowhere or some shit...) to transport prisoners singled out for torture even though they didn't want us to do that, but it's cool because it was just an administrative error, like, you know, New Orleans or something like that. As well, London's cool with it because we used "good faith" in handling our soon to be tortured prisoners. As far as they know, the blindfolded and shackled prisoners (who could possibly be innocent and turned in by Afghani or Iraqi soldiers working with militants - as is often the case - see Taxi to the Dark Side ) did not have cattle prods waved near their genitals or water shoved down their throat during the refueling, which is important for English sensibilities. So it's just America being America and that's cool. I mean, it was better that America do all the torture-shit without any British involvement, but you know, protocol in the end has been reestablished, and that's what counts.

Charles Krauthammer meanwhile is on the crack with his idea that the Iraq progress (less suicide bombings - more meetings between rich sheiks and vigilante forces that don't appear to be actively ethnically cleansing anymore now that the neighborhoods have been vetted in Baghdad) could transform the entire Mideast. Because you know, they totally trust us now looking at what's going on there. They trust us in Africa too! So much that the Chinese are going around and cleaning up on the economic future basically by claiming "hey! We're not American."

It used to be the freako-conservatives who haven't been prescient since they didn't like Stalin and even then they were totally cool with staying out of Hitler's way - used to plead with the American public that the economy was good and their homes were worth a lot of money (!!!$$$!!!) but now with the economy drenched in the urine of excess, we are told, hey, at least we're winning the war in Iraq. I mean, in the sense that they are not killing each other or us so much anymore. Though asking them or us what it all means is kind of like asking Bill Clinton to define "is".

Anyway, what follows is the very funny and depressing article from CNN - I read this at a breakfast counter and clapped once (the "administrative error" part) - it's small and means nothing, except that in its bureaucratic ass-headedness in talking about the mechanics of American methods of interrogation and torture it reveals the absolute bungle of American policy during the last seven plus years now. :

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Thursday that British territory was used to transport two suspects in the CIA's rendition program.

David Miliband said two suspects in the CIA rendition program were transported via British soil.

The British government previously had said it played no part in the program. The foreign secretary said Thursday's revelations were the result of "new information" the United States gave to Britain last Friday.

The U.S. State Department said it regretted Britain was given wrong information and called it "an administrative error."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We express regret that we initially provided inaccurate information to a good friend and ally."

Miliband told the House of Commons that two flights, each carrying a U.S. detainee, refueled in 2002 in Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean.

Miliband said the U.S. government had assured Britain that no U.S. detainees were ever held on Diego Garcia.

Don't Miss
* CIA flights to Greenland investigated

He said the planes only refueled at the U.S. facility on the island, and the detainees never left the plane.

He said a U.S. investigation showed no record of any other rendition through Diego Garcia or any other UK territory since then.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair assured the government's Intelligence and Security Committee last March that the United States had never rendered any detainees through the UK or its overseas territories since Sept. 11, 2001. The committee released a report last June saying it was satisfied with the findings.

Miliband said the government had a "deep disappointment" about the late news of the rendition flights, but he said Britain believed the United States acted "in good faith" when it made the initial assurances that no flights had taken place.

"Secretary Rice has underlined to me the firm U.S. understanding that there will be no rendition through the UK, UK airspace or overseas territories without express British government permission," he said.

Mike Gapes, chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, was less forgiving about the late information. His committee published its annual report on human rights last April in which it already expressed concerns about rendition.

"The fact that the United States Bush Administration has clearly misled or lied to our government has resulted in our government inadvertently misleading a select committee of this house and members of this house," Gapes said. "The United States administration has to bear in mind that this is a most serious matter and we do not wish to see it repeated."

CNN obtained a copy of a message CIA Director Mike Hayden sent to CIA employees in which he said the information surfaced late last year when the agency "took a fresh look" at records of rendition flights. He said it was important to take responsibility for the error.

"Given our mission, CIA could have no interest in a process destined to produce bad intelligence," he wrote.

In his message, Hayden says speculation about a CIA holding facility on Diego Garcia -- and allegations that the detainees are transported for the purpose of torture -- are "false."

"Torture is against our laws and our values," Hayden wrote.

The European Parliament and human rights groups have condemned the CIA's practice of rendition, in which the United States moved a suspected terrorist in CIA custody from one country to another.
advertisement

Critics claim the suspects are turned over to foreign intelligence services who use harsher interrogation methods, including torture.

As for the two detainees transported through Diego Garcia, Miliband said neither was a British national or resident. One is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay and the other has been released, he said.

8 comments:

Corms said...

The thing that gets me about this story is that it's about the "administrative error" in not telling the British about the stopover in Diego Garcia, it's not about stopping in Diego Garcia.

Sarge said...

Exactly. It's so goddamn wonderful.

Fungster said...

I thought Diego Garcia was our island for some reason. Guess you learn something each day.

But if it is theirs, and we have a military base there, then why should we tell them about every single phokking thing we take in and out of there? Do we tell the Cubans what we do in Guantanamo? We didn't tell the Brits about our little routing issue because we wanted to protect them from themselves. And if they keep us this whining nonsense then we're just gonna have to take over the base. Otherwise the terrists will win.

Corms said...

What on Earth made you think that Diego Garcia was Zimbabwean?

Smiff said...

Shouldn't Diego Garcia be a Spanish island, or at least Mexican?

"Torture is against our laws and our values," Hayden wrote.

Yes, and the entire nation just fell off the turnip truck and believed you.

Charles Krauthummer? Has that asshole ever been right about anything to do with Iraq? Now all of a sudden the shit is working. Maybe there are fewer people blowing up because there are fewer people to blow up (see: previous blowed up people), and millions have left the country.

My phokking @ss.

Sarge said...

Are you suggesting a massive refugee situation is problematic, Smiff?

The White House has always done really well in those situations, like in New Orleans. I mean, they took a stadium and turned it into a circle of hell. It was like Mardi Gras but with added rape.

And less beads.

Oh refugees! If you had just stayed where you were everything would have calmed down by now!

Fungster said...

I'm quite sure dat one of dose maps at NU probably has the Monomotapa Empire extending to include Diego Garcia. So dat's why I claims it in the name of Zimbabwe, as the descendant of the Monomotapa Empire.

Also, check out the wiki on Diego Garcia for more examples of whitey keeping darky down...

Smiff said...

I don't trust atolls. Never have, never will.