scrubs who could never get us in the States

WAR STUFF
IRAQ WAR:
* " The U.S. military has the right to keep soldiers in service beyond their original contracted time by issuing so-called emergency stop-loss orders, a U.S. appeals court said on Friday." LINK

* operationmatador: "There were also reported sightings of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist leader, who was said to have been treated for serious wounds at a hospital in the city of Ramadi. A hospital doctor claimed he was bleeding heavily when he arrived with three men last Wednesday. He was driven away after refusing to be admitted for further treatment." LINK
lol - pls.make.it.stop.

* "American officers acknowledged that they may merely have succeeded in redistributing insurgents to other parts of the desert. Some, like Zarqawi, are suspected of hopping across the 350-mile Syrian border when danger threatens." LINK
i geddit i geddit. zarq is a coward, and syria is toast. i geddit i geddit. please stop telling me .

* "IRAQ'S most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been seriously wounded, according to a doctor who claims to have treated him last week... The claim was supported at the weekend by a senior commander in the Iraqi insurgency who had been to Ramadi to investigate the report. The doctor, who refused to specify the nature of the wounds and asked not to be identified, was detained by the Americans on Friday for questioning, residents said." LINK
hmmm - that should erase any doubt then.

* "Many of the suicide bombers appear to have been novices in warfare, attracted by the relative ease of access to Iraq and the lure of quick martyrdom. "This is not al Qaeda's first team," said Hammes of the National Defense University. "These are the scrubs who could never get us in the States."" LINK
im so sick of these geniuses. seriously. they simply dont even make any sense. ever.

* wapo reports on rice's trip - but they dont mention that quote that i kept hearing on the teeve - something like 'we didnt choose this war'. grrrr. LINK

* "In an exclusive interview with The Observer (oz weapons inspector) Barton details how senior figures in British intelligence tried to stop the ISG publishing its interim report when they realised what it would say. He also reveals how when this failed, John Scarlett, who was then head of the powerful Joint Intelligence Committee and was subsequently appointed by Blair as the head of MI6, tried to strengthen the ISG report by inserting nine 'nuggets' of information to imply Saddam's WMD programmes were active, despite evidence to the contrary.
A (diary) note Barton made at the time suggests that he believes one possible reason for Scarlett's attitude may have been to 'establish breaches of UN Security Council resolutions'. This was, of course, a vital plank in the government's legal and political justification for invasion." LINK
scarlett got himself a promotion, and continues to earn it.


IRAN WAR:
* "In the run-up to its annual meeting in Washington later this month, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is urging Congress to pass legislation authorizing new sanctions against Iran." LINK

* the beeb is doing a 50 min piece on iran's nucular program - the soundtrack literally has Jaws them music. the final sentence in the program "this is a crisis that is unlikely to be defeated by diplomacy alone"
drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat. drumbeat.


NTH KOREA WAR?:
* wow - after i smacked down that appalling Sanger A1 NYT article on nthkorea, and called it miller-esque, it seems that there has been quite a storm brewing.
check out this E&P article - heres the lede:
"No reporter of national stature has more often -- and with insufficient skepticism -- reported the White House view of the Iranian and North Korean nuclear threats than David Sanger, the New York Times White House correspondent. The intellectually nimble Sanger has been channeling onto the front pages of his newspaper a combination of leaked factoids and broadbrush depictions of the growing danger to the United States."
hers the obvious question: why is such bollox reporting continually shovelled onto A1? surely not by accident - altho i dont really think that the ams are going to bomb nthkorea. why? why? why? 2 things happened - people fed sanger this bollox for a reason, and the nyt frontpaged it repeatedly. why?


TWOT:
* "A top al-Qaida suspect arrested in Pakistan could have vital information about possible terrorist attacks on Britain... The New York Times reported yesterday that Mr Libbi, a Libyan, was still in Pakistani custody and would not be handed over to the US quickly... There have been reports from Pakistan that he has not provided significant information during interrogations, during which he came under "physical pressure"." LINK
blah blah blah.

* "In January, British prisoners released from Guantanamo said guards threw their Korans into toilets and tried to force them to give up their faith. Human rights lawyer Tom Wilner, who represents several Kuwaiti prisoners at Guantanamo, said in February that his clients told him their Korans were thrown on the floor, stepped on and thrown into toilets at Guantanamo." LINK
does anyone doubt that this has happened? the only question is why the riots are warming up now? (and to be fair to newsweek, the headline that they are renegging on their story is not entirely accurate.)

* Reuel Marc Gerecht doesnt like outsourcing torture. why outsource? he has a point. he could have argued 'why torture?' - but if torture is a given, it really doesnt make any sense to outsource it. think of how much cheaper it would be if u didnt have to fly people everywhere... LINK
gerecht is evill and creepy. he also offers this insight: "The interrogation methods used at Guantanamo appear to have been derived overwhelmingly from those U.S. Special Forces are trained to resist." (his emphasis) you can almost imagine the jesusfreaks from the airforce academy at breaking point as their precious fucking bible gets flushed... or being forced to engage in faux gay sex without the cover of a closet.