An appeals court recently upheld a decision allowing the U.S. government to hold individuals as detainees in the so-called War on Terror without making their identities public. The ruling has many human rights organizations up in arms.

Those who support the government’s new secret arrest and detention powers claim these are necessary measures to effectively fight the global war on terrorism. Releasing the names and status of those held would give terrorist sleeper cells too much access to information vital to ongoing investigations. That information could possibly be used to thwart efforts to prevent future terrorist attacks.

Sounds fair enough, right?

Why then has the U.S. media been flooded with reports of the capture of the so-called Ace of Spades, General Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti. This gentleman - Saddam Hussein’s top advisor, body guard and secretary – is believed to have knowledge of the location of Iraqi’s weapons of mass destruction and Saddam himself. If this man has yet to be interrogated, wouldn’t it have been wise to keep news of his capture secret as the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are so determined to do with their prisoners?

Instead Saddam Hussein, his sons, and their supporters now know that the former General is in U.S. custody. They also now know exactly where not to go if they wish to avoid capture. In the words of one correspondent this morning, “If Saddam has 100 hiding places, Mahmud knows about 90 of them.” Well you might as well cross those off the list of places to look for Saddam, because he won’t be there.

This type of incompetence is unacceptable. Is disclosure of the identities of prisoners who may have knowledge integral to the security of our nation permissible or not? Either the Administration is bungling its efforts to keep Americans safe, or they are riding rough-shod over the Constitution of the United States.

Our President has committed our nation to an unprecedented, first-strike military policy. It’s more important now than ever before that we have the trust of the international community. That trust – not our motives or intent – will be the deciding factor in whether history remembers the United States as a global leader or a global tyrant. Furthermore, we need to be able to trust our government. But how can we with such blatant contradictions in policy? Contradictions which may – in the long run – endanger American lives.

Mr. Bush, please pull your head out of your ass. Soon.

Labels: General Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, George W. Bush, patriot act, saddam hussein, war on terror, wmd

The Bush Administration has come under increasing fire – both at home and abroad – for its inability to locate Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. So far this has been primarily considered a political problem for the President as the possible legal implications of the situation are debated. World opinion of the President and the nation has also been a growing concern. However, while these issues are valid, they are not what should be foremost in our minds.

Consider for a moment that the Administration is innocent before it has been proven guilty (a novel concept I know, but work with me here), and let’s assume some sizable amount of banned weapons do exist in somewhere in Iraq. Given that there are some people in Iraq, and elsewhere, who might use them against the U.S., shouldn’t locating those weapons be our top priority?

We should be using the full weight of our nation’s considerable military and diplomatic capabilities to find any and all suspected weapons of mass destruction today - not eventually - today. If U.S. troops are spread so thinly throughout Iraq maintaining security that they can’t stop Saddam’s loyalists, or some other group, from finding and using those weapons, then it’s the responsibility of our President to go to the United Nations immediately to request the aid of the international community in this task.

Because of our unilateral action in Iraq – and by the assertions of the Bush Administration itself – chemical and biological weapons may now be accessible to any force or faction in Iraq who finds them. Our President has a sworn duty to us all to ensure that – if they exist – those weapons are found and destroyed by our forces before they can be used to harm a single human being.

If President Bush fails us in this, then impeachment will be the least of his worries.

Labels: George W. Bush, iraq, occupation, wmd

U.S. forces continue to hunt unknown assailants in Iraq. They're not the Iraqi army...that much we know. I mean, they couldn't possibly be remnants of the Iraqi army right? The war is over...Yeah sure it is.

I can't write about an international terrorist force without a name however, so from now on I will call this enemy Cobra. I think it fits...

Our latest operation against Cobra forces was known briefly as operation Spartan Scorpion. I say briefly because a couple of hours after the attack the U.S. media began to report it as operation Desert Scorpion.

Why the name change? Is it to protect sensitive battlefield information that might be harmful to our troops? Possibly. But I find it much more likely that someone in the Pentagon press office got a stern phone call or e-mail from a Military History buff who informed them that the U.S. might not want to be too closely associated with the Spartans of Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) fame.

We can't have our military operations against Cobra named after aggressive, war mongering assholes you know.

Yooooooo Joe!

Labels: insurgency, iraq, occupation

No wait. The administration now believes that there is in fact some centralized coordination to the attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.

But they don’t care.

More accurately, they claim it doesn’t matter. No of course not. Why would it matter? Who’s organizing these forces? Rummy says don’t worry, ‘cause we’re gonna get them. Yep.

So that’s that. In other news the Middle East is still as vibrant as ever. So much so in fact that in three days I’ve heard three separate assertions on three different networks that a U.S. lead coalition of peace-keepers might be the only way to stop the violence and save the “road map.” Wouldn’t that be great? I mean they've done wonders in Korea over the past 50 years.

I give credit to Senator John McCain for understating the obvious today: “The Israelis can defend themselves.”

It scares the hell out of me that there’s an increasingly vocal segment of the U.S. population that believes our country - and our president - have some kind of cosmic destiny to fulfill. These people shop at Wal-Mart. I’m a Target Boutique guy myself, so you can understand my dismay.

Who knows, maybe this religious fervor thing will be good for us. Maybe someone will run a slew of “How would Jesus vote?” ads with mushroom clouds hovering over the “holy land” before the election, and people will finally pull their heads out their asses.

I won’t hold my breath.

P.S. John Ashcroft is in Portland today. I expect to be monitored.

Labels: iraq, John Ashcroft, John McCain

"People want, they actually demand, more security," he said at the Baghdad palace where the American civil administration is billeted. "And quite frankly, we don't have the forces at our disposal to do it."

There’s a problem in Iraq. Someone forgot to tell the Iraqi’s loyal to Saddam Hussein and the Baath party the war is over. Have you seen how many U.S. troops have died since the “end” of the war? In the past two weeks we’ve been averaging about one American life a day – not to mention the non-Americans killed in assaults in Israel, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. How long will it be before the number of occupation casualties eclipses U.S. war casualties? A month, maybe two? Given our experiences in Vietnam, how can the present administration honestly tell the citizens of the United States that the war is over with a straight face? G.I.s Joe and Jane won’t be coming home for Christmas.

And yet, they continue to tell us everything is fine. Administration officials claim there’s no central coordination behind the increasingly frequent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Of course we have no idea where Saddam Hussein or his sons are at present, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering anyone too much. Remember the final strike? The one that supposedly killed Saddam himself? It took until last week before the Military got around to excavating that site to search for Saddam’s DNA. WTF? They have time to dig up mass graves from 12 years ago when George the Elder promised military support to anti-Saddam “freedom fighters” who were then subsequently slaughtered and buried en masse by Iraqi forces when that support failed to materialize, but they haven’t found the axis of evil himself yet? I can’t say I’m surprised of course. After all, where’s Osama Bin Laden?

But wait, it gets worse. Our little war – the one that most definitely is not over yet – is costing us upwards of 100 Billion dollars. That cost was to be defrayed – so said the neo-cons – by revenue generated from the production, sale, and export of Iraqi oil. Apparently those who support Saddam – or at least those who would like to see the U.S. entrenched in a Vietnam like quagmire – have other plans. Besides killing our fellow citizens at check points and attacking their convoys, these people are specifically targeting U.S. efforts to get the Iraqi oil industry back in working order. No oil – no money.

In the meantime, official – and I use that word loosely - U.S. unemployment grew to 6.1 percent last week. Add to that the number of states having trouble meeting Homeland Security standards due to lack of funds, and you have the sorry state of the union. But don’t panic! George W. Bush has got it all figured out. W., affectionately known as “Bumble-fuck” in some circles, believes that he can solve the Middle East Problem TM and bring peace and prosperity to the world. This I gotta see.

Labels: George W. Bush, iraq, Osama bin Laden, saddam hussein

I've been seeing a lot of news about sensors lately. Some good - some bad. Our good friend the Internet enables little sensors to talk to one another. They can also talk to databases. Why should this concern anyone? Have you ever used a public restroom where you didn't have to touch anything? The toilet flushes for you, and the faucet comes to life at the wave of a hand. Progress. Take that same familiar infrared sensor and add some bells and whistles to it. A thermometer maybe. Innocuous enough sure, but that's not all you can add to it. If DARPA, the Pentagon, and the Department of Homeland Security get their way, our little sensors will be able to tell a database who drove what car how fast down what street at what time - not to mention what parking lot they pulled into.

Get those sensors out of the toilets and onto the exteriors of public buildings! It's all for security of course. Once these sensors are distributed throughout America's cities the Department of Homeland Security would like to connect them all to a "grand, centralized database." No, I am not making this up. This database would then be searched and cross-referenced until patterns matching predetermined criteria occurred. Folks, I'm a conspiracy enthusiast - not that there's anything wrong with that - so I speak from experience when I say that if you look hard enough - at a big enough set of data - the patterns WILL occur. They'll be dead wrong the vast majority of the time, but they'll be good enough for warrant totting ham-and-eggers to cover their asses with when they start arresting every poor slob who by some freak statistical anomaly happens to fit a threat-profile as defined by John Ashcroft. Better not visit those websites that sell bongs anymore. Hell, now that every blog is indexed by google, I'd better not use the WORD bong in my blog. Or bomb. Or president.

So what's good about distributed sensors? Well those same data sets used by the DHS to nab would be terrorists can also be used to generate more accurate weather forecasts. They can also be used to track wildlife for behavior, population, and migration studies. And a whole slew of other nifty things. Click the links - you'll see the potential.

These sensors - and the database(s) they're connected to - will likely never be abused by the United States government to create a world-wide Total Information Awareness super-despotism, but a little insurance for us folks gathered around the bottom of the all-seeing, all-knowing pyramid of power wouldn't hurt.

I propose this: Since all of these sensors are web-enabled - make their data public domain. Deploy them, and open-up the Total Information Awareness database to the web developing public. Talk about revitalizing the economy - we'll have killer apps coming out of our asses. Not to mention the number of IT jobs that would be created to maintain such an infrastructure. If data is the new currency, and our government is creating the largest data mine ever conceived, shouldn't we have access to it? Google lets us play with their data for fun and profit. Will the United States of America?

Labels: darpa, technology, tia