US District Judge basically accuses US Gov. administration of blackmail

[Josh Seipp]

NEW YORK - Saying the United States "does not surrender to blackmail," a judge ruled Thursday that pictures of detainee abuse at
Iraq's
Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.
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U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and
Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."

The ACLU has sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

The judge said: "Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command. Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed."

 

[avi]

oh man, that's golden

 

[Josh Seipp]

I would think this would get a little bit more attention

 

[lizard]

and if that Seymour Hersch guy is right, some of this shit is about people being raped in Abu Graib.

 

[lizard]

ah....

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

"Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They (Rumsfeld, et. al.) are in total terror it's going to come out."

 

[avi]

some serious shit. how long will it take to get out? weeks? months?

 

[FalseTodd]

round about 2009

 

[lizard]

dunno, the Pentagon has already delayed it once.

then, in related dumbass news, there was this:

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

 

[FalseTodd]

you know the radio host thing is offensive and all - but I find the question he was responding to is the REALLY mind-bending part

 

[NAD]

round about 2009

sounds about right.

man. i mean you can debate politics with whoever you want until the cows/troops come home, but at the end of the day these dudes just plain suck.

 

[Josh Seipp]

ugh I hate people

 

[lizard]

and THIS is priceless. Alan Colmes refers to a SFGate article about how Pat Tillman was against the war in Iraq and really enjoyed reading Noam Chomsky...and Ann "Yes, I've got an Adam's Apple" Coulter and Sean Vannity simply cannot accept it.

the video

the newspaper article

 

[Josh Seipp]

god watching that pair literally makes me sick to my stomach

 

[NAD]

i can watch ann cunter and laugh because she's obviously just trying to get a rise out of people, but that sean hannity dude, no way. i think he really buys into all the bullshit spewing forth from his person.

i'm saving that tillman article for later, looks pretty interesting.

 

[avi]

god that Tillman article is so tragic

 

[xfer]

not that it makes things okay, but my understanding is there aren't images of woo-haing american guys humping iraqis' butts. rather, they stuck a chemical light (a plastic stick) in the ass and laughed at him.

yeah, yeah, i know that's still a sexual assault, but let's not set up an expectation of hot gay porn that won't be fulfilled. i don't want to risk this not sticking and the administration getting off scot free again.

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

i would totally say the same thing in order to make a point that making the crime rate go down isn't the first thing we should be thinking of--but rather human rights, equality, etc. im not so sure the guy was thinking that, though.