Probe ‘to confirm CIA abductions’
Bob Morris @ Jan 23rd 2006 19:21 - Category: Torture ;
A European inquiry is expected to report on Tuesday that the CIA did illegally kidnap and transport detainees from Europe.
Archive for January 23rd, 2006
Not a good plan
Bob Morris @ Jan 23rd 2006 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
The Democrats will never become the majority party until they can prove to the American people that they have a better plan for keeping us safe. — Arianna Huffington
No. Democrats will become the majority party when they stop mouthing the Republican platform and instead create one of their own. They could look for inspiration at what they used to be, the party of the working class, unions, the poor, minorities, the dispossessed. When they championed those causes, they got elected over and over again. But when’s the last time you heard a Democratic Senator defend a union? Their base didn’t abandon them, they abandoned their base.
Other countries have been attacked too. But in response, they didn’t shred civil liberties, decide torture was a swell idea, spy on the citizenry, and launch wars based on lies. That’s what Democrats need to attack, the grotesqueries of the neocon agenda. If they to do that - and mean it - they’ll have no trouble getting elected again.
But if they continue to let the Republicans define their agenda, they will win nothing. A real discussion about security should include the obvious fact that the US created bin Laden when they financed the Mooj to fight against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 80’s. That was the birth of it all. That’s where they first met and joined forces. That’s what morphed into al Qaida.
If the US stopped invading countries, the Bin Laden’s of the world would suddenly have way less recruits. But the blundering imperialist policy of the US creates enemies as it goes. That’s what the discussion should be about. You want peace? Start by being peaceful.
One sick puppy
Bob Morris @ Jan 23rd 2006 00:06 - Category: Anti-war, Torture ;
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer was just convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Iraqi Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who was savagely beaten for two days before being suffocated by Welshofer.
Here’s some of Welshofer’s testimony. It’s a given that he or some of the sick fucks around him got hard-ons while they tortured a man to death.
And no, they didn’t get any information.
The Forgotten Wounded of Iraq
Bob Morris @ Jan 23rd 2006 00:05 - Category: Anti-war ;
Thirty-eight years ago, on Jan. 20, 1968, I was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam. It is a date that I can never forget, a day that was to change my life forever.
I cannot help but wonder what it will be like for the young men and women wounded in Iraq. What will their homecoming be like? I feel close to them. Though many years separate us we are brothers and sisters. We have all been to the same place.
It is so difficult at first. You return home and both physically and emotionally don’t know how you are going to live with this wound, but you just keep trying, just keep waking up to this frightening reality every morning. “My God, what has happened to me?” But you somehow get up, you somehow go on and find a way to move through each day. Even though it is impossible, you go on.
As this the 38th anniversary of my wounding in Vietnam approaches, in many ways I feel my injury in that war has been a blessing in disguise. I have been given the opportunity to move through that dark night of the soul to a new shore, to gain an understanding, a knowledge, an entirely different vision. I now believe that I have suffered for a reason and in many ways I have found that reason in my commitment to peace and nonviolence.
We must break this cycle of violence and begin to move in a different direction; war is not the answer, violence is not the solution. A more peaceful world is possible.
Ron Kovic speaking at ANSWER LA antiwar rally, Sept 24 2005
Morales becomes Bolivia’s president
Bob Morris @ Jan 23rd 2006 00:04 - Category: Imperialism ;
Leftist coca grower leader Evo Morales was sworn in on Sunday as the first indigenous president of Bolivia with high expectations of a better life for the poor majority in one of Latin America’s most volatile countries.
“The 500 years of Indian resistance have not been in vain,” Morales said in his inaugural speech. “From 500 years of resistance we pass to another 500 years in power.”
In his inaugural speech, Morales blamed the “neo-liberal” economic policies of the past and the “looting of our natural resources” for the poverty that affects around two-thirds of Bolivians.
