Will Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby Finger Scooter Libby? So far he's fingering Big Dick.

So, wow, it turns out that serial draft-dodger, sadist-in-chief, "last throes" guy Richard "Big Dick" Cheney was the driving behind the propaganda conspiracy that outed undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

One is shocked, shocked.

Is one not?



Links to the official DOJ website with transcripts of Scooter's testimony, here.

Scooter Libby's trial continues, masterful live blogging continues at firedoglake.


Unofficial excerpt from Scooter's Grand Jury testimony:

Fitzgerald: And do you have a nickname?

Libby: Yes, Scooter.

F: Can you give us a description of how you got the name Scooter?

L (joking): Are we classified in here?

Is this man insane? He was making snarky jokes about classified info while being questioned by Fitzgerald, under oath? Isn't this the same lame joke he tried when questioned by FBI agent Bond?

Talk about inappropriate and un-funny. Quick, let's look under the sofa, we might find those pesky WMDs.



But wait, wait.

It's time for another

No Blood for Hubris Official Mini-Mental Health Interlude:

"Some good news. Finally, President Bush is going to do something about global warming. He became alarmed when another chunk of ice fell off his mother."
--David Letterman

Libby trial
CIA
CIA leak
Libby GJ testimony

Shame on Us for Not Having Ended This Bestial War

Via Welcome to Pottersville: Welcome to Pottersville: Supergirl Strikes Again

FBI's Bond Fingers Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby

"Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said."

--Mark Twain



WaPo story here.

One of the FBI agents who interviewed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby during the CIA leak investigation testified yesterday that the vice president's then-chief of staff did not acknowledge disclosing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters, asserting that he was surprised when another journalist later told him about her.

FBI agent Deborah S. Bond also testified that Libby said that, while he was preparing to be interviewed by investigators in the fall of 2003, he came across a handwritten note he had made during a phone conversation with Vice President Cheney.

The note made it clear that, shortly before June 12, 2003, Cheney had told Libby that Plame worked at the CIA's counterproliferation division . . .

Libby's conversation with Cheney took place nearly a month before Libby telephoned Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief.

According to Bond, Libby said that, during that call, Russert mentioned that "all the reporters" knew that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife worked at the CIA.

Libby told the investigators that "it was as if it was the first time he'd heard it," Bond said.

-------------------------

"Earlier today, President Bush pardoned the White House turkey. It was just a practice run for Scooter Libby." --David Letterman

"Scooter Libby, who got indicted, has set up a legal defense fund to help pay his legal bills. It's pretty good, for a $1,000 donation you get a hand-written thank you note and the name of a CIA agent." --Jay Leno

"Libby was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice, three counts of perjury, and one count of not being as smart as Karl Rove." --Jon Stewart

"What did Scooter Libby say when he bumped into President Bush at the White House? 'Pardon me.'" --Jay Leno

"Outside the courthouse, Libby's lawyer said all he wants to do is clear his client's good name. I don't know. "Scooter"? Is that a good name?" --Jay Leno



Libby trial
CIA
FBI testimony
Cheney testimony

Judy Judy Judy Fingers Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby -- PLUS, my favorite parts of trial testimony to date!

Judy Judy Judy.

Your and Scooter's aspen-roots all intertwined, and a-turnin'. "They turn in clusters, for they are all connected."

Ah, yes. Turn, turn, turn.

That makes five people who have turned in Scooter and undermined his feeble spin so far, does it not?

WaPo here.

PLUS -- my favorite trial part. So far.

IN WHICH Scooter "What kind of name is that for a grown man?" Libby asks Addy the age-old burning question: how do you know an undercover agent is undercover when you're introduced to him or her?

Firedoglake liveblog paraphrase excerpt:

Fitzgerald: What else was said?

Addington: He (Libby) asked me how you would know if you met someone from CIA if they were undercover. . . . He asked if they introduced themselves how you'd know.

The answer is, of course, YOU KNOW THEY'RE A CRUCIAL TOP-SECRET DEEP-COVER CIA AGENT WHEN THEY INTRODUCE THEMSELVES BECAUSE OF THE BIG SPARKLY NEON PINK "NOC" BADGE THE CIA MAKES THEM WEAR!!!


God I hate having hopeless retards running the country.


Libby trial
CIA and Valerie Plame
Judith Miller testimony

ARI FLEISCHER FINGERS I. "SCOOTER" (What kind of name is that for a grown man?) LIBBY

Via WaPo.


How stupid is Scooter Libby?

Stupid enough that his flimsy slimy cover story, of learning a CIA NOC's identity from reporters, just exploded fully in his face.

Ari Fleischer just testified that Libby was telling him all about Valerie Plame's identity days before Libby claims he "heard it" from reporters.

Scooter told him the "Valerie Plame" name (not "Wilson's wife").

Scooter told him she worked for CIA.

Scooter told him Plame worked on weapons nonproliferation -- part of CIA's Operational Directorate. As in -- secret. As is -- "NOC, NOC -- who's there?"

FLEISCHER TELLS JURY THAT LIBBY TOLD HIM ABOUT PLAME

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told a jury today that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was the first person to disclose the identity of an undercover CIA officer to him in July 2003. Valerie Plame's identity was revealed in the press days later.

Taking the stand just before noon in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fleischer said that in an unusual lunch in the White House mess, Libby told him that the wife of a prominent war critic worked in the CIA's counterproliferation division. Fleischer, a crucial prosecution witness, said Libby told him at the July 7 lunch that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was sent to Niger not by the vice president, but by Wilson's own wife at the CIA.

So much for Scooter's tall tale about learning about Plame from reporters. So satisfying to have it smashed to smithereens.

Ready for the big house, Scooter?
I'm sure the big house denizens are all ready for you.

My favorite interchange:

Prosecution: Did you have any hesitation about sharing this?

Fleischer: I never would have thought this was classified. Never in my wildest dreams believed this involved, as I've read since, this involved a covert officer.



(NB -- Note that the information Scooter is passing on to Fleischer includes inaccuracies that are specific to the spin of the Vice-President, and are not factual. Wilson's wife did not "send" him to Niger. The Vice-President made a sexist attempt to undermine Wilson's credibility by suggesting that he went at the behest of the little woman, because as we all know, females are inferior beings who can't send anyone anywhere, and if they do, it therefore must be bullshit. This is also why Valerie Plame cannot be a NOC, even though she was. Because women are just secretaries, pencil-pushers, hors-d'oeuvres-passers, babymaker housekeepers, yada yada yada. So very fifties mindset, is it not?)


More via RawStory/MSNBC, here.
Liveblogging trial via firedoglake, here.
Libby trial
Plame
Ari Fleischer

What? Cheney Lying In Order to Foster War? We're Shocked, Shocked!

Rockefeller: VP Cheney applied 'constant' pressure to stall investigation on flawed Iraq intelligence

* Cheney increasingly on the defensive
* Durbin calls Cheney 'delusional'

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney exerted "constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel's Democratic chairman charged Thursday.

In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia also accused President Bush of running an illegal program by ordering eavesdropping on Americans' international e-mails and telephone communications without court-issued warrants.

In the 45-minute interview, Rockefeller said that it was "not hearsay" that Cheney, a leading proponent of invading Iraq, pushed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to drag out the probe of the administration's use of prewar intelligence.

"It was just constant," Rockefeller said of Cheney's alleged interference. He added that he knew that the vice president attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to Republican staffers.

Republicans "just had to go along with the administration," he said.

More here.

SOTU: Bubble Boy Channels Jimmy Carter

Yeah, hey wow, all of a sudden Preznit Toad-Exploder suddenly believes in global warming!

And in global climate change, balancing the budget, saving the environment he raped, defending our system of laws, yup, the ones he himself disembowelled, and he suddenly now believes in helping the poor and the elderly, and yes balancing the budget whilst cutting taxes, hyuk hyuk hyuk. So cute. So verry cute.

Oh, and while Jimmy Carter is still the big-time Bushist fascist poster boy for, um, "bad" prescient presidents, he was apparently right THIRTY FRICKIN' YEARS AGO for advising us to get off the Big Oil Teat, since Bubble Boy is now a-carryin' that particular (petroleum-fuel-based?) torch.

Rather against his will, one supposes.

Still, dear Bubble Boy and his merry band of Bushist fascists want to drown everything good and decent in the great Grover Norquist bathtub, however.

Oh well.

Their War on America/War on Democracy is, one must admit, still going rather well for them.

So far.



[EXTRY EXTRY READ ALL ABOUT IT! BubbleBoy's Bubble Bubble Toils & Trouble: red hot simmering steaming screaming facts on LibbyCheneyTraitorGate!

Plus: the actual INR Memo, here.]

Plus, way MORE fun: Ghosts of SOTU Past!!


State of the Union
Bush
worst president ever

China's Up, America's Down: Thanks a Lot, Bubble Boy

So China's winning the space-race, weapons-wise, here.

And thanks to Bubble Boy's Oedipal War in Iraq, his pissing away the big fat Clinton/Gore surplus, and the huge bleeding screaming deficit he created with his evil Oedipal War in Iraq, he pretty much sold this country down the river -- to China, who picks up our debt (Bush's debt, really).

And Bushist fascist Ben Bernanke's blaming Bush's bleeding screaming deficit not on Bush, but on -- the Baby Boomers, here.

Preznit Toad-Exploder's doing pretty darn well in his War on Democracy/War on America. It's the only thing he's good at -- the moral and fiscal destruction of the USA.



America -- dragged by its hair to Bush's bathtub, thrown in, and drowned.

By George Bush -- America's Batterer.


.

More Blood for Bush's Hubris: Who Will Be the Last to Die for Bush's Lies?

Bubble Boy's at it again, sending your kids to Iraq to die, but -- not his kids.

(His twins are total slackers who don't even have jobs, never have had any jobs, just like their daddy hasn't ever had a real job ever.)

I mean, golly, what a speech it was. What cheerleading. Big-time. High-end. Sending other people to be the last to die for his lies, but not his people, it's sort of like when coWard Bush wouldn't put his own ass on the line by going to Vietnam, but wanted others to spill their blood for him, kinda Jesus in reverse, as it were.

Can you say -- chickenshit juvenile toad-exploding moron warmonger?

Can you say -- arrogant SOB?

Can you say -- poster boy for not letting stupid people with character disorders run the country?


Thanks all the same.

More here.

Bush's Duct-Tape Mummystate -- Or, Saving Western "Civilization" Via Medievalist Savagery

Torture, torture, torture.

You'd think someone would tell these people the stuff they do is wrong.

You know, like their Mommies and Daddies.

Did Barbara Bush ever tell Bubble Boy that exploding toads was wrong?

Apparently not.

Anyway, Jesus wept, here's more fun stuff from Gitmo.

Your tax dollars at work.


FBI DETAILS DETAINEE ABUSE

WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay military base, including one detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran and another who pulled out his hair after hours in a sweltering room.

Documents released Tuesday by the FBI offered new details about the harsh interrogations practice used by military officials and contractors when questioning so-called enemy combatants. . . Some military officials and contractors told FBI agents that the interrogation techniques had been approved by the Defense Department, including directly by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. . .

"I did observe treatment that was not only aggressive but personally very upsetting," one [FBI} agent wrote, describing seeing a man left in a 100-degree room with no ventilation overnight. "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently literally been pulling his own hair out throughout the night."

Another agent said he heard several "thunderclaps" then saw a detainee lying on the floor with a bloody nose. Interrogators told the agent the man was upset and had thrown himself to the floor.

Hmm. That's the kind of excuse wifebeaters and childbeaters use, is it not? "She ran into a door." "She just tripped and fell."

Charming.

The War on Science -- TALIBANGELICALS SUPPRESS AGE OF GRAND CANYON

The continuing Talibangelical fundamentalist war on science, courtesy of the Bushist fascists.

Watch out, kids. It's book-burning time!


HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’"

In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues.

In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. . . .

Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on “Interpretation and Education (Director’s Order #6) which reinforces the posture that materials on the "history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and] Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."

“As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan,” Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and leading geological societies against the agency approval of the creationist book."

Down with Medievalism. Shame.



Full story here.

Saddam Hanged Until Dead: Joins 600K+ Others in Iraq War Death Toll. This'll Sure Stop That Pesky Sunni/Shi'a Civil War, Won't It?

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, n'est-ce pas?

More, here.

Saddam Hussein
Hussein Execution
bush
Donald Rumsfeld

Gerald Ford Dies

Gerald Ford has passed away.

Gerald Ford is perhaps one's second-favorite Republican president. Not counting Lincoln as a Republican.

(One's first favorite Republican president is Dwight Eisenhower, for having warned us about the "military-industrial complex," a warning which we failed to heed to our detriment, like Carter's warning about the urgent need to get off the oil teat.)

Of course, Gerald Ford did promote Cheney and Rumsfeld, and leave the East Timorese to be crushed. And he allowed Dick Nixon to escape prison.

On September 8, 1974 President Ford issued Proclamation 4311:

It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States. The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Indepdendence of the United States the one hundred and ninety-ninth.

But there's another side, according to Rodney Anonymous:

When looking back on the Ford years (both of 'em), be sure to stress what he didn't do:

Gerald Ford never OKed illegal wiretapping

Gerald Ford never had to kill a rabbit with an oar

Gerald Ford never traded arms for hostages

Gerald Ford never said "Read my lips, no new taxes" . .

Gerald Ford never managed to run up the greatest national debt in our history

Plus, Gerald Ford never started a war based on non-existent WMDs that killed 600K people. Nor did he morally and fiscally bankrupt America, but rather inspired it to greater humor. And why not?

Condolences to Betty; one wishes Gerald well.

His Brilliant Career -- Aussie Star Shane Warne to Retire -- Takes 700th Wicket Against England's Strauss

Shane Warne. Best wicket-taker EVER. Spin bowler extraordinaire.

Finishing out his brilliant career by clean-bowling top-order batsman Andrew Strauss, to take his 700th wicket at Melbourne.

Warne most recently helped to annihilate England in recent The Ashes test, which Australia won, 3-0, to regain The Ashes for Australia.

GOOD ON YA, WARNIE!

One should perhaps take this opportunity to admit that one's first introduction to cricket came through a wonderful Indian film called "Lagaan" ("Taxes") set in Colonial India, which featured a great cricket match, sudden outbreaks of song and dance, ladies cavorting in monsoon-dampened saris, and snarky portraits of evil, bad-tempered, racist imperialist Brits.

But it was the incomparable Aussie series "Kath & Kim"'s incomparable Sharon Strzelecki who taught me about Warnie and The Flipper.

One has never been the same.




Sydney Morning Heraldhere.
Shane Warne to retire
The Ashes

Merry Tibetan Buddhist Christmas

Peace on earth, good will to men.


May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May all beings never be apart from the great happiness free from suffering.

May all beings remain in the great evenness of mind
free from passion, aggression and ignorance.



(This means you, too, George).

Special Christmas hat-tip to Buddhist Jihad.

Power & Control Abuser Bush Insults Senator Webb & His Marine Son (Then WH Spreads That Smear All Around Like Bushist Fascist Holiday Cheer)

It was bad enough when Bubble Boy was caught talking with his mouth full.

It was worse when he was caught chewing with his mouth open. Feh.

It was even worse when he was caught sexually harrassing the female Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. (As if she were his pet cow, he came up on her from behind, touching her, touching her without permission, then flounced off as if nothing had happened, to minimize his invasion of another person's physical boundaries. When was the last time Bush gave Poison Putin an unwanted touch? Or Kofi Annan? Ahmadinejad?)

The worst of all was when was Bush was caught -- without any WMDs.
600K dead, no WMDs, oops, sorry.

Bush is always getting caught with his pants down, one way or another, is he not?

This time, Bush was caught trying to exert power and control over the free speech of a newly-elected Senator, one whose own son is now serving in Iraq.

(Unlike Preznit Toad-Exploder's two adult daughters, neither of whom is serving in Iraq, and both of whom remain unemployed slackers at age 25, never having had a real job in their whole lives, just like their bio dad, Dubya.)

It's not pretty.

"How's your boy?" Bush asks, referring to Senator Webb's adult son, a Marine who is now serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get 'em out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responds.

"That's not what I asked you!" Bush snaps. "I said, how's your boy?"


From The Hill:

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

"I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing," Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but . . . didn’t. . .

A White House spokeswoman declined to give Bush’s version of the conversation.

The horror! The horror!

Sieg heil, we are sorry, we know we must all obey dear fearless leader Preznit Snippy and endure all his divine tyrant temper tantrums and all his unchecked divine megalomania, because he "is" so importantly, our great divine Deciderer, Our Sole Preznit Toad-Exploder. (Depending upon what "is," is.)

Although we are those who must shed our blood to defend free speech, we know we must never ever seek to exercise it, particularly not when we are In The Presence, nor may we ever deviate from the Divine Script.

Next, shall we not be much more careful to be shuffling out of His Presence backwards, whilst bowing? Why, we must ask Helen Mirren what is to be done!

Why, oh why, aren't we treating George Bush properly, as King-Emperor, right now, why, O you librul traitors, why, eh?

Oh, and please spread this story around, media whore media, at closet cupcake Karl Rove's behest, so everyone knows that punishment follows lese majeste.

Well, Karl, you know, sometimes what follows that kind of Bush's War on Democracy Bushist fascist stuff is like, other stuff, like, well, tar & feathers, & offering indictments.

Probably not therapy.


Bush and Webb
Bush rude to Sen. Webb
Iraq War

Update: here's George Will, being stupid and defending the indefensible Bush. One was deeply touched when Will read the riot act to Cheney, after the VP told Senator Jeffords to go fuck himself, was one not?
Update 2: WH deliberately pushed Webb smear, from Editor & Publisher, via RawStory, here.

The Terrible War on Democracy: Bush Kidnaps, Tortures Americans. Shut UP About Your Stupid "Wars" on Christmas & Terror. This War is Real.

This despicable story shows just how far the Bushist fascist War on Democracy has gone. Can you say "TOTAL CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW"?

The good news is that the story is finally being told in the usually ball-less American media.

Kudos to Michael Moss, and the NY Times.

One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents. . .Nathan Ertel, the American held with Mr. Vance, brought away military records that shed further light on the detention camp and its secretive tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly denying detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings to determine whether they should be released or held indefinitely, perhaps for prosecution.

The story told through those records and interviews illuminates the haphazard system of detention and prosecution that has evolved in Iraq, where detainees are often held for long periods without charges or legal representation, and where the authorities struggle to sort through the endless stream of detainees to identify those who pose real threats.

"Even Saddam Hussein had more legal counsel than I ever had," said Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that his constitutional rights had been violated. "While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to instill in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to the Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves. . ."

In April, Mr. Ertel and Mr. Vance said, they felt increasingly uncomfortable at the company. Mr. Ertel resigned and company officials seized the identification cards that both men needed to move around Iraq or leave the country.

On April 15, feeling threatened, Mr. Vance phoned the United States Embassy in Baghdad. A military rescue team rushed to the security company. Again, Mr. Vance described its operations, according to military records. . . On the evening of April 15, they met with American officials at the embassy and stayed overnight. But just before dawn, they were awakened, handcuffed with zip ties and made to wear goggles with lenses covered by duct tape. Put into a Humvee, Mr. Vance said he asked for a vest and helmet, and was refused.

They were driven through dangerous Baghdad roads and eventually to Camp Cropper. They were placed in cells at Compound 5, the high-security unit where Saddam Hussein has been held.

Only days later did they receive an explanation: They had become suspects for having associated with the people Mr. Vance tried to expose. . .

Mr. Vance said he began seeking help even before his cell door closed for the first time. "They took off my blindfold and earmuffs and told me to stand in a corner, where they cut off the zip ties, and told me to continue looking straight forward and as I’m doing this, I’m asking for an attorney," he said. "‘I want an attorney now,’ I said, and they said, ‘Someone will be here to see you.’"

Instead, they were given six-digit ID numbers. The guards shortened Mr. Vance’s into something of a nickname: "343." And the routine began. . . .

Five times in the first week, guards shackled the prisoners’ hands and feet, covered their eyes, placed towels over their heads and put them in wheelchairs to be pushed to a room with a carpeted ceiling and walls. There they were questioned by an array of officials who, they said they were told, represented the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"It’s like boom, boom, boom," Mr. Ertel said. "They are drilling you. 'We know you did this, you are part of this gun smuggling thing.' And I’m saying, you have it absolutely way off."

The two men slept in their 9-by-9-foot cells on concrete slabs, with worn three-inch foam mats. With the fluorescent lights on and the temperature in the 50s, Mr. Vance said, "I paced myself to sleep, walking until I couldn’t anymore. I broke the straps on two pair of flip-flops. . ."

Their legal rights, laid out in a letter from Lt. Col. Bradley J. Huestis of the Army, the president of the status board, allowed them to attend [their] hearing and testify. However, under Rule 3, the letter said, "You do not have the right to legal counsel, but you may have a personal representative assist you at the hearing if the personal representative is reasonably available. . .”"

Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel had separate hearings. They said their requests to be each other’s personal representative had been denied.

At the hearings, a woman and two men wearing Army uniforms but no name tags or rank designations sat a table with two stacks of documents. One was about an inch thick, and the men were allowed to see some papers from that stack. The other pile was much thicker, but they were told that this pile was evidence only the board could see.

The men pleaded with the board. "I’m telling them there has been a major mix-up," Mr. Ertel said. "Please, I’m out of my mind. I haven’t slept. I’m not eating. I’m terrified."
Mr. Vance said he implored the board to delve into his laptop computer and cellphone for his communications with the F.B.I. agent in Chicago.

Each of the hearings lasted about two hours, and the men said they never saw the board again.

"At the end, my first question was, 'Does my family know I’m alive?' and the lead man said, ‘I don’t know,’" Mr. Vance recounted. "And then I asked when will we have an answer, and they said on average it takes three to four weeks." About a week later, two weeks into his detention, Mr. Vance was allowed to make his first call, to Chicago. He called his fiancée, Diane Schwarz, who told him she had thought he might have died.

"It was very overwhelming," Ms. Schwarz recalls of the 12-minute conversation. "He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, and was kind of turning to me for answers and I was turning to him for the same."

She had already been calling members of Congress, alarmed by his disappearance. So was Mr. Ertel’s mother, and some officials began pressing for answers. "I would appreciate your looking into this matter," Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois wrote to a State Department official in early May.

On May 7, the Camp Cropper detention board met again, without either man present, and determined that Mr. Ertel was "an innocent civilian," according to the spokeswoman for detention operations. It took authorities 18 more days to release him.

Mr. Vance’s situation was more complicated. . . . Over the following weeks, Mr. Vance said he made numerous written requests — for a lawyer, for blankets, for paper to write letters home. Mr. Vance said that he wrote 10 letters to Ms. Schwarz, but that only one made it to Chicago. Dated July 17, it was delivered late last month by the Red Cross.

"Diana, start talking, sending e-mail and letters and faxes to the alderman, mayor, governor, congressman, senators, Red Cross, Amnesty International, A.C.L.U., Vatican, and other Christian-based organizations. Everyone!” he wrote. "I am missing you so much, and am so depressed it’s a daily struggle here. My life is in your hands. Please don’t get discouraged. Don’t take 'No' for answers. Keep working. I have to tell myself these things every day, but I can’t do anything from a cell."

The military has never explained why it continued to consider Mr. Vance a security threat, except to say that officials decided to release him after further review of his case.

"Treating an American citizen in this fashion would have been unimaginable before 9/11," said Mike Kanovitz, a Chicago lawyer representing Mr. Vance.

On July 20, Mr. Vance wrote in his notes: "Told ‘Leaving Today.’ Took shower and shaved, saw doctor, got civ clothes back and passport."

On his way out, Mr. Vance said: "They asked me if I was intending to write a book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking of getting an attorney. I took it as, 'Shut up, don’t talk about this place,' and I kept saying, 'No sir, I want to go home.’"

. . .Mr. Vance is back in Chicago, still feeling the effects of having been a prisoner of the war in Iraq.

"It’s really hard," he says. "I don’t really talk about this stuff with my family. I feel ashamed, depressed, still have nightmares, and I’d even say I suffer from some paranoia.'

I'd say you suffer from PTSD.

May you sue the living crap out of everyone involved.

May those who have made war on our Democracy wind up in Gitmo.

For Christmas. For ever.




Full NYTimes story here.

detainee abuse
Bush's War on Democracy
Nathan Ertel
Donald Vance

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude (#8)

Ho ho ho.

"A new poll shows that one in five Americans believe they can't trust President Bush. To put it another way, more Americans would be comfortable accepting a ride from Nicole Richie." -- David Letterman

"They had the Iraqi Commission report and President Bush says he will not make a decision about getting us out of Iraq until 2007. He says he wants to give it some careful thought . . . unlike getting us into Iraq." -- David Letterman

"Here's an interesting lawsuit. A judge has ruled that because all paper money feels the same, the government discriminates against the blind. I think that's unfair. The government doesn't discriminate against the blind. Hey, isn't that who got us into Iraq?" -- Jay Leno

"The president of Iran . . . is holding a conference on whether or not the Holocaust actually took place. . . . The good news? The conference is being catered by Taco Bell." -- Jay Leno

"President Bush has received a copy of the 96-page Iraq Study Group report. When they gave it to him, President Bush said, 'Don't tell me how it ends!' They said, 'Uh, it doesn't.'" --Jay Leno

"Dick Cheney's daughter, who happens to be a lesbian, is pregnant. ... That's great. It gives Dick another chance to get out the shotgun." -- David Letterman

"The Christmas tree at the White House fell over. Actually, it didn't fall over. What happened was President Bush was standing next to it when a photographer walked in. I guess the tree was trying to distance himself from President Bush." -- Jay Leno

The long anticipated Iraq Study Group report was delivered to President Bush recently. He promised to take it just as seriously as all the other Iraq reports stuffed down between his desk and the wall." -- Amy Poehler

"You know the part of the Iraqi report that concerns President Bush the most? Having to read it." --Jay Leno

"Exciting news from the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is a lesbian, is pregnant. I think President Bush is a little confused about the big news. He immediately called the Lebanese Ambassador to pass on his congratulations." -- Jay Leno

"Mary Cheney said today she doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl, so long as it grows up to be a gym teacher." -- Jay Leno

Conservative Crank Even Stupider Than Ahmadinejad: Swears Soy Makes Boys Too Girly

God save me from these people.
Really.

Columnist claims soy products reduce penis size, make men gay

A column published today on conservative website World Net Daily claims that use of soy products leads to reduced penis size and higher rates of male homosexuality.

In "A devil's food is turning our kids into homosexuals," author James Rutz claims that soy raises human estrogen levels, causing the shifts.

Maybe instead of calling these idiots, the Bushist fascists, merely "Orwellian," we need to add "as if they just popped out of a fabulous Stanley Kubrick movie scripted by Terry Southern, and ran rampant over the landscape, wreaking havoc and making zero sense."

To wit:

General Jack D. Ripper (to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake):
Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?

Mandrake:
Well, no I... I can't say I have, Jack.

Ripper:
Vodka. That's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?

Mandrake:
Well I . . . I believe that's what they drink, Jack. Yes.

Ripper:
On no account will a commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.

Mandrake:
Oh, ah, yes. I don't quite . . . see what you're getting at, Jack.

Ripper:
Water. That's what I'm getting at. Water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, you realize that . . seventy percent of you is water.

Mandrake:
Unhhh, God . . .

Ripper:
And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.

Mandrake:
Yes. (Chuckles nervously)

Ripper:
You beginning to understand?

Mandrake:
Yes. (Chuckles. begins laughing/crying quietly)

Ripper:
Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?

Mandrake:
Well it did occur to me, Jack, yes.

Ripper:
Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?

Mandrake:
Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes.

Ripper:
Well do you now what it is?

Mandrake:
No. No, I don't know what it is. No.

Ripper:
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

(Window in the office is shot through by automatic weapons fire.)

Oh well. Turns out, it wasn't the fluoride, it was the soybeans.

Ahmadinejad
Bushist fascists
soy, homosexuality

News Flash: Ahmadinejad Even Stupider Than George W. Bush! (or, "An Inconvenient Holocaust")

Guess what, boys and girls?

The Holocaust never happened!

Iran's President Ahmadinejad, more lately known as "Karl-Rove-in-a-Turban," has held a conference in Tehran in a valiant attempt to de-create "An Inconvenient Holocaust"!

One must admire his depth of spin.

And don't forget: WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. UP IS DOWN. ARBEIT MACHT FREI.

ANTI- HOLOCAUST "CONFERENCE" BEGINS IN IRAN

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran hosted Holocaust deniers from around the world Monday at a conference examining whether the Nazi genocide took place, a meeting Israel's prime minister condemned as a "sick phenomenon."

The 67 participants from 30 countries included former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Holocaust skeptics who have been prosecuted in Europe for questioning whether 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis or whether gas chambers were ever used.

"The number of victims at the Auschwitz concentration camp could be about 2,007," Australian Frederick Toben told the conference, according to a Farsi translation of his remarks. "The railroad to the camp did not have enough capacity to transfer large numbers of Jews," said Toben, who was jailed in 1999 in Germany for casting doubt on the Holocaust.

Full story here.

Looking forward Ahmadinejad's next conference, "Promoting Civil Disobedience to the Law of Gravity."

Ahmadinejad
Holocaust "Conference"
Iran

Congressman Tried To Shut Up Foley's Page

When there's a Bushist fascist sex scandal, it's way better to just shut UP about it, is it not?

Well, sure, if you know what's good for you. From the official report:

[T]he instant message could have been attached to an e-mail sent to Rep. Kolbe but not opened and read," the report reads, but adds, "If Rep. Kolbe was not shown the instant message he should have asked for it."

Still later in the report's account of Kolbe's involvement in the page scandal, it is stated that, according to the former page, Kolbe warned him, “it is bes[t] that you don't even bring this up with anybody.... [T]here is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this. The man [Foley] has resigned anyway.”

An image of that portion of the report follows:

A few days after that conversation -- after the national media had circulated several Instant Message conversations between Foley and former pages, including some that involved discussions of penis size -- Kolbe left the former page a voice message, which, according to the page, said, "It looks like you did some talking."

Ah, those famed Bushist fascist family values.

GOPedophile protectionism, first, last and forever.

Via RawStory.

Iraq = Bush's Botched Joke

What's so funny about Iraq, Bubble Boy's botched joke?

Nothing.

Seems way less funny than his famed knee-slapper where he crawled around on all fours, looking under furniture, not finding those pesky WMDs.

Maybe it's time, you know, not to elect dyslexic megalomaniac cheerleaders as President. Maybe it's time to, you know, stop Khmer-Rouge-esquely dumping on the intelligent for being intelligent, and start dumping on morons for being morons.

I'm ready to return to leaders with foresight that actually works.

Any Republicans out there with a conscience? Anyone feeling bad about the actions of your selected/elected moron fearful fearless leader?

The one who's led America into moral and fiscal bankruptcy? The one who promotes torture, while gutting habeas corpus? The one with zero respect for the rule of law?

You should. You bought him, he broke it. All of it.

Abu Ghraib, Gitmo.

Haditha.

Katrina.

Iraq.

Who will be the last to die for Bush's botched joke?



Robert Gates
Bush's botched joke
worst president ever
Iraq Study Group

America's Talibangelicals--Preborn Pain? Si! PostBorn Pain? No!

Jesus, it is said, wept even for the post-born, but America's Talibangelicals do not.

America's Talibangelicals weep for the "pre-born" (sic) and want us to weep for them, too, here. They're considering a bill that concerns the pain of the "preborn" (sic).

Yes, and while America's many millions of post-born unwanted children remain un-adopted, and un-fostered, neglected, physically and/or sexually abused, America's Talibangelicals focus on promoting government-forced maternity, increasing the numbers of unwanted children, and adopting the dear little teeny weeny lonely fwozen embryoes with their big round sad eyes, embryoes who call out to us from their lonely petri dishes, here.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like James Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill, while not supporting any pain of the postborn bill, are those who support the whipping of infants. Which would likely, you know, involve pain. For the postborn. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill believe in belt-beating their children, as they themselves were belt-beaten before them, which, you know, involves pain. For the postborn. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill believe in belt-beating their own puppies, which, you know, presumably involves pain. For those post-born doggies. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

One wonders, sometimes -- did ALL the mothers of all these preborn-obsessed Talibangelicals, at one time or another, angrily reveal that they wished their kids had never been born? Or what?

Anyhow, this is a picture of one Miss Brown. She was postborn and unprotected. She was beaten to death by her family.

Not that the Talibangelicals think there's anything wrong with that.

Not enough to write a law about, anyhow. When the U.S. House reconvenes in December, lawmakers will take up a key initiative on the pain felt by preborn babies during an abortion. The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in 2004. Because THIS is what's really important, people!

Preborn, si! Postborn, no!

preborn pain bill
Talibangelicals
child abuse
government-forced maternity
James Dobson

Here's Why Bush Should Not Have Cut and Run from Afghanistan: Teacher of Girls Disembowelled

Too bad that our boy Bubble Boy refused to concentrate on Afghanistan and finish the job.

But then, Toad-Exploder's always had a soft spot for the Afghan Taliban, has he not? He hosted them so very charmingly in Texas, while they were the world's acknowledged leaders in oppressing women.

Impelled by his overwhelming oedipal issues, George W. Bush cut and ran from Afghanistan, leaving our actual enemy Osama Bin Laden alive, and leaving the Taliban strong enough there to work over time to retake the country.

In service of that aim, the Taliban now are free to do this:


Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls
Ghazni, Afghanistan

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

Mr Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taliban and US and Afghan forces.

The day we arrived, an Afghan policemen and eight insurgents died during an ambush in an outlying village. Rockets were found, primed to be fired into Ghazni City during a visit by the American ambassador a few days previously.

But, as in the rest of Afghanistan, it is the civilians who are bearing the brunt of this conflict. At the village of Qara Bagh, the family of Mr Halim are distraught and terrified. His cousin, Ahmed Gul, shook his head: "They killed him like an animal. No, no. We do not kill animals like that, it would be haram. They took away a father and a husband, they had no pity. We are all very worried. Please go now, you see those men standing over there? They are watching. It is dangerous for you, and for us."

Fatima Mushtaq, the director of education at Ghazni, has had repeated death threats, the notorious "night letters". Her gender, as well as her refusal to send girls home from school, has made her a particular source of hatred for Islamist zealots.

"I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much? Mohammed Halim and his family were good friends of ours and we are very, very upset by what has happened. He came to me when the threats first began and asked what he should do. I told him to move somewhere safe. I think he was trying to arrange that when they came and took him," she said.

The threats against Ms Mushtaq also extend to her husband, Sayyid Abdul, and their eight children. "When the first letters arrived, I tried to hide them from my husband," she said. But then he found the next few. He said we must stand together. We talked, and we decided that we must tell the children. So that they can be prepared, but it is not a good way for them to grow up."

Ms Mushtaq is familiar with the ways of the Taliban. During their rule she and her sister ran secret schools for girls at their home. The Taliban beat them for teaching the girls algebra.

Link via The Independent here.


cut and run
Taliban
teacher disembowelled

War On Christmas Peace Wreath

Peace?

Hah!

What a Satanic notion!

WOMAN FACES FINES FOR WREATH PEACE SIGN

DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing."

Jensen, a past association president, calculates the fines will cost her about $1,000, and doubts they will be able to make her pay. But she said she's not going to take it down until after Christmas.

Next thing you know, they'll be wanting Peace on Earth, or something!

Let's all sport flaming peace wreaths on our lawns. That's the way to celebrate the real spirit of Christmas, is it not?




peace wreath
war on Christmas
Colorado peace wreath



Update: board members refuse to support ban on Christmas peace wreath, so they get fired. Don't we love Democracy in America, free speech, all those things people die for?
Later update, here: Silly wabbit, peace is for Satanists!' department--Oh dear. Satanic forces win, god-warriors resign. In disgrace (well, depending on whose side you're on).