President Litella
Remember Obama’s repeated denunciations of Guantanamo? His consistent assertion that it was a moral stain on America? His insistence that not only was closing Gitmo the right thing to do, but the pragmatic thing to do? That closing it, eliminating military tribunals, and trying accused terrorists in civilian coursts would improve American security?
Well–nevermind:
When moral preening meets reality, bet on reality.
Change.
Comment by Sublime Oblivion — March 7, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
But he’s hopeless!
What?? Hopeless??? I don’t understand – I thought that now he’s doing what you believe was the right thing all along, you’d say he’s “coming around”.
Comment by Mark — March 8, 2011 @ 11:14 am
I think that SWP considers Obama hopeless in that he constantly flip-flops around and has no real beliefs except the opinion polls.
Comment by Andrew — March 8, 2011 @ 11:32 pm
“trying accused terrorists in civilian coursts would improve American security?”
I didn’t know that the reason for having a legal system is to “improve American security”. If that were our main criteria, then why should we give people their day in court in general?
If the police arrest an American man in, say, Baltimore on suspicion of, say, burglary or murder, let’s just throw him in jail for a dozen year or so. Would giving the accused people the chance to defend themselves in court “improve American security”? Not really. I am sure that a police state can fight security risks better than a democracy. How much terrorism did they have in the USSR? Very little. Under the pre-Glasnost Soviet rulers, Chechens and all other Muslim Caucasus ethnicities were too afraid even to open their mouths.
But is THAT what we want in America?
Funny how some clueless visitor mistook you for a libertarian, Craig. FYI, the word “libertarian” comes from the word “liberty” not “security”.
Comment by Ostap Bender — March 10, 2011 @ 2:44 am
Moreover, afaik, very few of the people imprisoned in Guantanamo pose threat to the security of American civiliains. Even if we forget that some people in Guantanamo are innocent, most of the rest are “enemy combatants”, i.e., men whose only “crime” was to offer armed resistance to the US troops that invaded and occupied their home country of Afghanistan. I happen to be on the side of the USA in this war, but there is a huge difference between warriors and terrorists, and defending one’s own country in a war is NOT a crime, even if it is a “bad” country. Were German soldiers, defending Nazi Germany, all criminals? No.
Were all Chechens who fought against Yeltsin and Putin in the two Chechen wars, terrorists? No. Only those who terrorised civilians.
I recall a huge international outrage when the Russian courts put Andrei Babitsky, a journalist who fought alongside the Chechens in that war, in jail for a few days or weeks, after which he received an amnesty. Even the Butcher of Belgrade Madeleine Albright raised hell about “poor Babitsky”.
And yet, when NATO murdered in cold blood some 16 journalists and technicians at the Belgrade TV Center for the “crime” of expressing pro-Serbian views – nobody in the West cared. And when USA imprisons journalists in Guantanamo, nobody except the “left wingers” cares:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/17/guantanamo-bay-al-jazeera
Al-Jazeera journalist imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay to sue George Bush
“The purpose of our organisation is to open a case against the Bush administration,” said co-founder Sami al-Haj, an al-Jazeera reporter from Sudan who was illegally detained by US authorities for over six years after being captured while he was working as a cameraman. He was freed in May 2008.
The legal action may be modelled on an action against General Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in the UK in 1998 at the request of a Spanish prosecutor for the alleged murders of Spanish citizens in Chile under his dictatorship.
“Torture is continuing in Guantánamo,” al-Haj said. “Obama needs to close Guantánamo immediately.”
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Six years for the “crime” of being a camera man! I wonder what huge American crimes against humanity he was videotaping to justify the US throwing him in the slammer for 6 years…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/aug/19/iraqandthemedia.iraq.
US troops ‘crazy’ in killing of cameraman
Journalists who were with a Reuters news cameraman shot dead by US troops while filming outside a Baghdad prison yesterday accused the soldiers of behaving in a “crazy” and negligent fashion.
They claimed the Americans had spotted the Reuters crew outside the jail half an hour before Mazen Dana was killed and must have realised he was not a guerrilla carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
The chief executive of Reuters, Tom Glocer, said: “The latest death is hard to bear. That’s why I am calling upon the highest levels of the US government for a full and comprehensive investigation into this terrible tragedy.”
Dana, 43, is the second Reuters cameraman to be killed since the US-led force invaded Iraq. His death brought to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since the war began on March 20.
* News
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US troops ‘crazy’ in killing of cameraman
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* Jamie Wilson in Baghdad
* The Guardian, Tuesday 19 August 2003 07.23 BST
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Journalists who were with a Reuters news cameraman shot dead by US troops while filming outside a Baghdad prison yesterday accused the soldiers of behaving in a “crazy” and negligent fashion.
They claimed the Americans had spotted the Reuters crew outside the jail half an hour before Mazen Dana was killed and must have realised he was not a guerrilla carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
The chief executive of Reuters, Tom Glocer, said: “The latest death is hard to bear. That’s why I am calling upon the highest levels of the US government for a full and comprehensive investigation into this terrible tragedy.”
Dana, 43, is the second Reuters cameraman to be killed since the US-led force invaded Iraq. His death brought to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since the war began on March 20.
The journalist was killed on Sunday when soldiers in two tanks opened fire while he was filming near Abu Ghurayb prison, which had earlier come under mortar attack.
The US army, which has launched an investigation, claimed its soldiers thought his camera was a weapon.
But colleagues who were with the award-winning cameraman when he was killed told a different story.
Nael al-Shyoukhi, a Reuters soundman, said the soldiers “saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.
“After we filmed we went into the car and prepared to go when a convoy led by a tank arrived and Mazen stepped out of the car to film.
“I followed him and Mazen walked three to four metres. We were noted and seen clearly.
“A soldier on the tank shot at us.
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I wonder what the Western propaganda would have done if the Russian military murdered a Reuters journalist…
Comment by Ostap Bender — March 10, 2011 @ 3:23 am
Really bender, the USSR had quite a bit of terrorism, most of it committed by the state.
Great purges, collectivisation, the Gulags, mass deportations of ethnic minorities.
Though of course you consider those the good old days, don’t you bender.
Considering that most of the victims were likely, according to Solzhenitsyn, to be victims of one of your particular ethnicity, no wonder you defend the USSR against all reason.
Comment by Andrew — March 10, 2011 @ 11:15 pm
https://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/march-18-2011-contents/#comment-97462
Andrew | March 14, 2011 at 6:28 am wrote:
“Hopefully they will start targeting FSB sympathisers such as Maimoneedes/Ostap as well”
Robert | March 14, 2011 at 7:58 am wrote:
“Geez Andy, cool it off. Assassinating anyone over writing stuff on the Internet?” .
Andrew | March 17, 2011 at 12:49 pm wrote:
I just feel the world would be a better place without you Gostapo… LOL
Andrew | March 17, 2011 at 12:58 pm
And why would I want to stay away from you …
Andrew, you should be institutionalized before you are allowed to commit irreparable damage. There is absolutely nothing else for you and me to discuss.
Comment by Ostap Bender — March 19, 2011 @ 9:47 pm
Oh Ostap, such a touchy little chap.
However, your support for ethnic cleansing in the Caucasus does make you a legitimate target of the victims of Russian imperialism.
Comment by Andrew — March 20, 2011 @ 5:26 am
And once again, you are unable to answer the facts, that in Russia terrorism is institutionalised and a pillar of the state, be the Russia in question Tsarist, Communist, or Putinist.
Comment by Andrew — March 20, 2011 @ 5:29 am
You are a very ill man, Andrew. The internet attracts millions of mentally ill people, but you are ill even compared to them. If you were living in USA, you would be arrested for making terrorist and death threats and then institutionalized.
Comment by Ostap Bender — March 21, 2011 @ 1:18 am
BTW Gostapo, I have forwarded all your posts regards your moral support for SVR agents to the Legal Attache (FBI Section chief) at the US Embassy, a friend of mine, he will be looking into your actions as he feels you may be involved in a threat to US security.
Comment by Andrew — March 22, 2011 @ 10:32 pm
@Andrew:
You are so ignorant that you clearly think that USA is a totalitarian nation like your Georgia. FYI, Americans live in a free nation with free speech, especially now that Obama is in power. We don’t beat up opposition with bats like your Sakashvili likes to do. And we don’t threaten others with murder, like you like to do. Get lost.
Comment by Ostap Bender — March 25, 2011 @ 4:44 am