Fair Use Note

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
Showing posts with label National security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National security. Show all posts

Saturday, July 24, 2010

24 July - Truth Hostage to Polity

Keep Space for Peace demo - Menwith Hill Spy B...Image by pluralzed via Flickr

 Jeff Gates: Sayanim – Israeli Operatives in the U.S.
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/jeff-gates-sayanim-israeli-operatives-in-the-u-s  

©  Jeff Gates Source:  Veterans Today

Americans know that something fundamental is amiss. They sense – rightly – that they are being misled no matter which political party does the leading.

A long misinformed public lacks the tools to grasp how they are being deceived. Without those tools, Americans will continue to be frustrated at being played for the fool.

When the “con” is clearly seen, “the mark” (that’s us) will see that all roads lead to the same duplicitous source: Israel and its operatives. The secret to Israel’s force-multiplier in the U.S. is its use of agents, assets and sayanim (Hebrew for volunteers).

When Israeli-American Jonathan Pollard was arrested for spying in 1986, Tel Aviv assured us that he was not an Israeli agent but part of a “rogue” operation. That was a lie.

Only 12 years later did Tel Aviv concede that he was an Israeli spy the entire time he was stealing U.S. military secrets. That espionage – by a purported ally – damaged our national security more than any operation in U.S. history.

In short, Israel played us for the fool.

From 1981-1985, this U.S. Navy intelligence analyst provided Israel with 360 cubic feet of classified military documents on Soviet arms shipments, Pakistani nuclear weapons, Libyan air defense systems and other intelligence sought by Tel Aviv to advance its geopolitical agenda.

Agents differ from assets and sayanim.  Agents possess the requisite mental state to be convicted of treason, a capital crime. Under U.S. law, that internal state is what distinguishes premeditated murder from a lesser crime such as involuntary manslaughter. Though there’s a death in either case, the legal liabilities are different – for a reason.

Intent is the factor that determines personal culpability. That distinction traces its roots to a widely shared belief in free will as a key component that distinguishes humans from animals.

Agents operate with premeditation and “extreme malice” or what the law describes as an “evil mind.” Though that describes the mental state of Jonathan Pollard, Israeli leaders assured us otherwise—another example of an evil mind as the U.S. was played for the fool.

From RSS SnapShot! Yid with Lid

  Democratic governors make awesome movie montage for bloggers

North Korea Says Latest U.S. Sanctions Are Tantamount to `Hostile Policy'

The U.S. should make concrete steps toward engaging in dialogue if it is serious about ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.

New sanctions will target government officials and the foreign banks that help sustain the country’s weapons industry. North Korea’s economy has been battered by existing trade restrictions, including those imposed by the United Nations after nuclear tests in 2006 and last year. 

Obama Omits Jobs Killed or Thwarted from Tally: Caroline Baum

Sure the government can spend money and generate GDP growth in the short run: Government spending is a component of GDP!  Firms less than five years old are responsible for all of the net new jobs created in the U.S., the Kauffman study found. Job creation by start-ups is more stable, less sensitive to the business cycle.

So, if the goal is to create more jobs, and start-ups are the ones that create them, why is the Obama administration partnering up with existing firms?
“Job-creation policies aimed at luring larger, established employers will inevitably fail,” said Tim Kane, Kauffman Foundation senior fellow in research and policy and author of a follow-up study released this month.

 Three of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for federal government

Key lobbying hires include 18 former members of Congress and dozens of former presidential appointees. For other senior management positions, the industry employs two former directors of the Minerals Management Service, the since-renamed agency that regulates the industry, and several top officials from the Bush White House. Federal inspectors once assigned to monitor oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico have landed jobs with the companies they regulated.
With more than 600 registered lobbyists, the industry has among the biggest and most powerful contingents in Washington. Its influence has been on full display in the wake of the BP oil disaster: Proposals to enact new restrictions or curb oil use have stalled amid concerted Republican opposition and strong objections from Democrats in oil-producing states.

THE WAR FOR ISRAEL
http://www.nogw.com/warforisrael.html  ( and you thought the oil was for the US )
You are looking at the reason for the war against Iraq. This war was initiated by Ariel Sharon for Israel's strategic benefit!

Thats what Israel does. It has its intelligence organization, Mossad, carry out false flag operations and deceives others into attacking their enemies. In short they get others to fight their wars for them.
Israel is in the midst of its plan to use the United States military, which it controls, to conquer Iraq and divert Iraqi oil to the Haifa refinery via the Mosul to Haifa pipeline. The U.S. has built airbases at H1, H2 and H3 (which stand for Haifa 1, 2 and 3) to protect this strategic pipeline. The pipeline is used to send oil to Israel. Paid for with the blood of American soldiers that die in Iraq. See: The Reason Bush Is Pushing For Syria's Invasion PDF
Iraq is being turned into another Palestine state for Israel.
This war was fought in order to secure Israel's future. Israel, being a parasite nation, needed to create an income stream that would continue if funding from the United States should dry up. They have been working on the plan to steal Iraqi oil for years. Read Israel's Blitzkrieg on Middle East Oil PDF by Joe Vialls for more on this.
To quote Mr. Vialls article, "... they are already planning to steal 1,825 million barrels of Iraqi oil per annum. Taking a nominal price of US $25.00 per barrel ... the Israeli-Jewish terrorists stand to make a cool US $45,625,000,000.00 each year .... " [Thats over 45 1/2 Billion dollars a year or $125 million each day!!!]
Mr. Vialls claims that the 45 billion a year jackpot is more than just a lot of money, it's a matter of survival for Israel.
Israel has become the 3rd largest exporter of weapons in the world PDF, selling everything from Uzis to PHALCON airborne early warning systems. Defense Ministry figures show Israeli weapons export contracts were worth $4.1 billion in 2002. Only the United States with $13.2 billion and Russia with $4.4 billion sold more weapons that year.
Israel's possesses the fourth largest army in the world.

Israel is the only nuclear enabled country in the Middle East. Israel has overtaken England to become the worlds 5th largest nuclear power, roughly equivalent to France and China in the size and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. Recent reports indicate that Israel has deployed five different nuclear weapons designs. It is estimated to have 2000-5000 conventional nuclear warheads and many micro nuclear devices like the bomb that destroyed the Sari Club in Bali. (These new nuclear devices only emit alpha radiation that is invisible to a standard geiger counter). In addition they have the neutron bombs, (that can kill people and leave the buildings intact) and hydrogen bombs PDF. Hydrogen bombs are currently the most fearsome and intimidating weapon on earth, capable of causing over 60000 times the damage of a nuclear bomb like the one used on Nagasaki. The Hydrogen bomb is so intimidating that most nations vow never to produce it, though it is really not much harder than producing regular nukes. When we are talking WMD, this is the big Kahuna.

Israel has the capability to take out every major city in Europe. Israel refuses to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) or to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by International inspectors.
Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions. A further 33 resolutions against Israel has not seen the light of day thanks to the United States vetoing power on the Security Council.
Nuclear disarmament must begin with Israel. Until that time, Arab states in the region have an inalienable "right" and "obligation" to develop similar weapons (of mass destruction) to counter this overwhelming threat to their nations and peoples.
Since Israel possess such a large nuclear arsenal, they are able to blackmail the United States into supplying them conventional weapons. They have been known to sell those weapons and technologies to other countries, once they are given to them. The Patriot missile, the Phoenix air-to-air missile, the Lavi fighter, based on the F-16, have all been sold to Beijing. Only direct U.S. intervention prevented Israel from selling Beijing AWACS technology.
Zionist forces are in control of the United States. When Ariel Sharon said:
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael
-- it was no idle chatter. He was telling the truth. They have gained control through the Federal Reserve System PDF and control of the central banks. The Illuminati and their Zionist agents also employ nuclear blackmail PDF. They are firmly in control of Australia, Germany and England as well as the U.S. Their allies will unite to fight the good fight for the greater good of Israel.
Just follow the trail of the money!

Yet Another Israeli Spy Case (UPDATED)
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/19/another_israeli_spy_case
Oct 15, 2009
Another Israeli spy scandal is making news. Of course, at this point, we don't know much only that like other recent spy scandals, it is an ugly episode that will reverberate negatively on the "Israel, right or wrong" crowd. ITALICIZED MATERIAL IS NEW.
The Israel-first crowd is screaming that this spy case doesn't involve the government of Israel.
Not true. The US government charges that the spy took over $200,000 from Israel Aircraft -- an Israeli government entity -- in exchange for top secret information. Obviously, the case involves the government of Israel. This is not to say the accused spy is guilty. A trial will determine that. However, the State of Israel is deeply implicated in the charges.
It is also worth noting how quickly the Israel firsters defend accused spies. Why? It is as if Arab-Americans immediately rushed to defend those charged with terrorism based on ethnic solidarity?
Can you imagine the brouhaha if Arab Americans rushed to knee-jerk defense of the guy charged with those thwarted New York terror attacks scheduled for this September 11? They don't do that. The Israel-first do, over and over again. Any Israeli, any Jew, is always, by definition, unjustly accused. It is exactly the opposite with Arabs and Arab Americans. Fortunately, the Israel firsters constitute exactly .000003% of the American Jewish community (slightly higher here at the Cafe).
This is from the Wall Street Journal. It looks huge.


Biggest reason Right Wing groups Oppose Kagan nomination?
http://codylyonblogolater.blogspot.com
July 13, 2010
Judicial Action Group is a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 2006, the 501(c)4 status (unlike a tax-deductible 501(c)3 status) allows JAG to engage in unlimited lobbying, 'maximizing its influence.' The group is part of a larger coalition of right leaning groups including the web umbrella, Freedom Federation.' That particular coalition of activists calls itself "a federation of multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations and leaders committed to plan, strategize, and mobilize to advance shared core values to preserve freedom and promote justice" Featured along with Judicial Action Group on the Freedom Federation website, several other widely known Right Wing groups including better known groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association, Eagle Forum and The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

Leading JAG is president Phillip Jauregu,a partner at Birmingham law firm Jauregu & Lindsey who Jauregu's biography says represents various clients ranging from small business, to corporate entities, to individuals, such as former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Judge Roy Moore, a hero in right wing circles gained national attention when as Chief Justice, he placed a washing machine sized replica of the biblical ten commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court. When challenged and eventually court ordered to remove the replica, hordes of fundamentalist Christian groups from around the nation descended onto the capital Montgomery to pray, protest and hold vigils.

Moore was eventually ordered out of office and Jauregui led the legal team that eventually lost an appeal that resulted in the removal of then Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office, over his refusal to remove the granite replica.

Jauregui's JAG says it believes that the present state of the culture war created the need for a Special Forces unit that single-mindedly devotes itself to one mission: "defeating judicial activism." On its website, JAG says it serves this vital niche.

But, some saw Jauregui client Roy Moore as an activist judge. In a November 2003 Court of the Judiciary hearing, Alabama's Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system. He said what message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."
.......................................

Alabama, Tim James, George Wallace and Campaign Exploitation



During a chat on politics while home visiting friends and family in Birmingham Ala., one friend remarked that candidates who speak in ‘positives’ rarely do well in campaigns for state office in Alabama. She pointed to the legacy of unfortunate condescension, that use political formulas where candidates steer people’s attention from true ‘center of life’ issues towards hot button social topics.

Of course, this is probably one of the easiest, oldest and cheapest tricks in politics but, fueled on by a media focused on the sensational, it often works, not just in the South, but, across the nation,

And, for some us who grew up or live in Alabama, headlines seem to say this deep-south state has produced more than its fair share of this sort of similar political games.


Over the past few weeks, Americans have met Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James, the 48-year old son of former Governor Fob James who was noted in part for blunt language and loud opposition to the teaching of evolution.

The younger James, a millionaire businessman, has inspired news headlines, sneers from liberals and now a barrage of viral videos based on a real television campaign ad where the candidate for governor tackles Alabama’s practice of offering drivers license exams in 12 languages.

During the ad, James looks earnestly into the camera and say’s “this is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.” One would be hard pressed to find evidence that offering drivers license tests to a variety of languages is a ‘central to Alabama life issue,’ nonetheless, since the ad’s debut, James’ poll numbers have gone up and local interest in the governor’s race has jumped. These days, he’s drawing big crowds as he criss-crosses the state in the ‘common sense’ express.

FBI false flag terror plot exposed in court
http://911blogger.com/node/22993
Defense says NY synagogue-bomb plot was feds' idea - Washington Pos

 Related articles by Zemanta

Enhanced by Zemanta

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

15 Dec - Framing and Policy

Jim Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State.Image via Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Believing in Change Yet ? ? ? ?


Matt Taibbi on business as usual in DC and on Wall Street:


http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2009/12/believing-in-change-yet.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feedamp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGallopingBeaver+%28The+Galloping+Beaver%29

( Noting a Zemanta pick )
 My DD
On Matt Tabibi

I get the sense that Matt Taibbi is hitting his stride now, and is starting to become the major writer of the Obama era from the WTF side of the telling. I have been reading him for some time now, and he just keeps getting better and better. Going back to around the '04 campaign and forward, he seemed amused by the insane quality of American campaigning, and if you've read 'Spanking The Donkey' you know it falls into the Thompsonesque style of covering politics-- splat out insightful but not aspiring of actual policy influence. I don't know that Matt had done ludes or bennies while writing STP, but I wouldn't blame him if it was necessary.
So if you missed it, read Taibbi's latest, The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway; and then you can read a post by Tim Fernholz over at TAPPED, The Errors of Matt Taibbi; and then, what is an eviscerating come back by Taibbi aimed toward Fernholz, On Obama's Sellout.  
Felix Salmon nails the back-and-forth drama




Project MUSE

The Washington Quarterly

Volume 31, Number 4, Autumn 2008

E-ISSN: 1530-9177 Print ISSN: 0163-660X

Table of Contents


Provocations

Managing Foreign Policy and National Security Challenges in Presidential Transitions
pp. 7-20
The Merits of Dehyphenation: Explaining U.S. Success in Engaging India and Pakistan
pp. 21-42
Strategic Collaboration: How the United States Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise
pp. 43-57
The Defense Inheritance: Challenges and Choices for the Next Pentagon Team
pp. 59-76
Conservatives and Progressives in South Korea
pp. 77-95
The EU's Test in Kosovo
pp. 97-112
Picture the Problem: What Does the World Want from America?
p. 115

Global Visions for America

A Less Ideological America
pp. 117-123
Europe's Call for a Leader by Example
pp. 125-133
Fix This Middle Eastern Mess
pp. 135-142
India's Quest for Continuity in the Face of Change
pp. 143-153
A Forward-Looking Partner in a Changing East Asia
pp. 155-163
Return from 9/11 PTSD to Global Leader
pp. 165-173

Rhetoric & Public Affairs

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhetoric_and_public_affairs/toc/rap.11.2.html


Volume 11, Number 2, Summer 2008

E-ISSN: 1534-5238 Print ISSN: 1094-8392

Table of Contents

Articles

Building the Kingdom of God: Religious Discourse, National Identity, and the Good Neighbor Policy, 1930–1938
pp. 179-214
Enacting Transformation: George W. Bush and the Pauline Conversion Narrative in A Charge to Keep
pp. 215-241
Death by Publicity: U.S. Freemasonry and the Public Drama of Secrecy
pp. 243-277
"Playing Up Being a Woman": Femme Performance and the Potential for Ironic Representation
pp. 279-302
Insisting on Persisting: The Nuclear Rhetoric of "Stockpile Stewardship"
pp. 303-334

Book Reviews

The Character of Justice: Rhetoric, Law, and Politics in the Supreme Court Nomination Process (review)
pp. 335-339
In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns (review)
pp. 339-341
Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, and the Moral Panic over the City (review)
pp. 342-344
Héctor P. García: Everyday Rhetoric and Mexican American Civil Rights (review)
pp. 344-348
Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA (review)
pp. 347-349
The Rhetoric of Sir Garfield Todd: Christian Imagination and the Dream of an African Democracy (review)
pp. 350-352
Crafting the Overseer's Image (review)
pp. 352-354
Rhetorical Action in Ancient Athens: Persuasive Artistry from Solon to Demosthenes (review)
pp. 355-357
A Ciceronian Sunburn: A Tudor Dialogue on Humanistic Rhetoric and Civic Poetics (review)
pp. 357-360
Regendering Delivery: The Fifth Canon and Antebellum Women Rhetors (review)
pp. 360-363
Paul Ricoeur: Tradition and Innovation in Rhetorical Theory (review)
pp. 363-365


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Andy Worthington

Adrift....Image by Richard0 via Flickr
Andy Worthington

Another Blow To Britain’s Crumbling Control Order Regime

 

According to the British government, a Kurdish Iraqi imam living in the north of England was such a threat to national security that, for the last three years and four months, he was subjected to a control order, a form of house arrest involving, but not limited to curfews, tagging, Home Office vetting of all visitors, a ban on the use of computers and mobile phones, and random security checks at all times of the day or night.

The government has maintained, since May 2006, that it was relying on secret evidence to justify its conclusion that this man — identified only as AE — posed a significant terrorist threat, and that the control order was necessary because it could not compromise its intelligence sources and methods by putting him on trial, which, it maintained, might lead to sensitive information being revealed in court. However, last week, in the wake of a ruling by the Law Lords in June, which gave the government only two options — to provide more information to the control order detainees, to allow them to challenge the basis of their control orders, or to release them outright — home secretary Alan Johnson announced, in a letter to AE’s solicitors, that he had chosen the latter option, and that AE was now a free man.
This outcome had been expected since June, because AE’s case was due in court next week, and the government already knew that a judge would quash his control order, unless officials agreed to provide him with sufficient evidence to challenge his control order, because this is exactly what happened in July, in the cases of two British nationals, and was repeated three weeks ago, in the case of a joint British-Libyan national identified only as AF.
To understand how we came to such a bizarre and ridiculous situation in which, one minute, a man is regarded as one of the most dangerous terror suspects in the UK and held on a control order, and the next minute is a free man, because the government is unwilling to have its evidence tested objectively, we need to return to March 2005, when the control order regime was first implemented, and to understand that, from the beginning, it was an ad hoc system cooked up in haste to replace the government’s previous method of holding terror suspects without charge or trial — imprisoning them in Belmarsh high-security prison — which the Law Lords had ruled illegal in December 2004, three years after it was first introduced.
Critics of the system stated from the beginning that depriving men of their liberty on the basis of secret evidence and refusing to put them on trial because of an anachronistic desire to protect intelligence sources and methods was both unjust and unnecessary, because of the appalling secrecy — special advocates were appointed to deal with the secret evidence in closed sessions, but were prohibited from telling their clients anything about what took place in those sessions — and because organizations like JUSTICE, the all-party law reform and human rights organization, had been demonstrating for years (PDF) that most countries in the world had found ways of presenting sensitive information in court (intercept evidence, for example) without compromising intelligence sources and methods, and that the UK should be no exception.
However, it was not until June that the government was finally obliged to take notice of the mounting opposition to the system, when the Law Lords ruled unanimously that imposing control orders breaches Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, because a suspect held under a control order is not given “sufficient information about the allegations against him to enable him to give effective instructions to the special advocate assigned to him.”
In the wake of the Lords’ ruling, the government tried to maintain its composure. Alan Johnson stated that the judgment was “extremely disappointing,” and added, “All control orders will remain in force for the time being and we will continue to seek to uphold them in the courts. In the meantime, we will consider this judgment, and our options, carefully.”
However, it was clear that the regime’s days were numbered, and this was confirmed when, in two cases in July, Mr. Justice Mitting ruled that the government was obliged to drop a control order against a British national and a father of five, identified only as BM, who, in May, was forced to move from his home in east London to a one-bedroom flat in Leicester on the basis of claims by the Home Office that he was “a prominent member of a network of Islamist extremists,” and followed up by ruling that the government’s secrecy regarding the evidence against another British national, identified only as AN, had “gone so far as to deny AN knowledge of the essence of the case against him,” and it was reinforced when AF’s control order was quashed by a judge three weeks ago, and the home secretary again gave up the fight, choosing to grant AF his liberty rather than reveal any of the secret evidence against him.
Long-standing critics of the regime were not the only observers to wonder how dangerous these men could really be if, after years of being treated as though they were particularly explosive packages, who would detonate if left unobserved for more than a minute, the government chose to grant them total freedom rather than test the allegations against them in open court.
It follows, of course, that questions must inevitably be raised regarding the quality of the government’s supposed evidence, and the reliability of the intelligence services, and the only conclusion I can reasonably draw is that the government was content to deprive people of their liberty on little more than a whim, or a hunch based on ill-defined associations and untested raw intelligence reports, and certainly not on the basis of anything that could objectively be examined and considered as evidence.
While I wait to see whether the remaining 14 control orders will, as anticipated, also be quashed (and note that another appears to have been quietly dropped by the government over the last few months, with no fanfare and no announcements whatsoever), and while I also wait to see how the government will respond to forthcoming challenges in the cases of other men held on deportation bail, rather than on control orders, I leave the final word on AE’s case, for now, to Mohammed Ayub, his solicitor, who told the Guardian:
For three-and-a-half years he and his family have had to live a life which has been controlled in every respect by the Home Office: where he lives, when he may go out, where he may go, who he may meet, what employment he may undertake. During the whole of this period, he has never been told on what basis he is suspected of being a terrorist and he has never had a fair hearing before a court at which he could challenge the allegation made against him.
Ayub explained, as the Guardian described it, that AE, his wife and three children “might not get over the psychological harm of the past three years,” and added, “AE will consider carefully his legal options in respect of seeking damages from the home secretary for the wrong that has been done him and his family.” He also stated that control orders were “fundamentally oppressive and unfair”, and “flawed in their conception, execution and review.”
This prompted a rote response from a Home Office spokeswoman, who, as the Guardian put it, said that “revoking the order did not change the assessment that control orders remained the best available disruptive tool for managing the risk posed by suspected terrorists they could not prosecute or deport,” but it is unlikely that this “assessment” will prevail, as Alan Johnson has asked Lord Carlile, the government’s “independent reviewer” of terrorism laws, to report back on whether control orders should continue, and even Carlile, a supporter of the regime in principle, has stated in his annual reports (PDF) that no control order should be extended beyond two years “save in genuinely exceptional circumstances.”
In a recent statement, backed up by peers and MPs on the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, Carlile refuted claims by the Home Office that “A definite end-date would mean individuals on control orders could simply disengage from involvement in terrorism-related activity on the basis that they knew they could re-engage at the end of that time period,” reiterating his assertion that control orders lasting more than two years can only be justified “in a few exceptional cases,” and telling the Committee, “After that time, at least the immediate utility of even a dedicated terrorist will seriously have been disrupted.”
With these opinions so publicly available, it appears that Lord Carlile is unlikely to present the government with a new escape route, and that the UK may, finally, have to rejoin the majority of the civilized world in accepting that, even in the struggle against terrorism, it is unacceptable to imprison men — or otherwise deprive them of their liberty — on the basis of secret evidence.
Note: For a BBC interview with AE, recorded in June, see here.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009, and if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
As published exclusively on Cageprisoners.
For other articles dealing with Belmarsh, control orders, deportation bail, deportations and extraditions, see Deals with dictators undermined by British request for return of five Guantánamo detainees (August 2007), Britain’s Guantánamo: the troubling tale of Tunisian Belmarsh detainee Hedi Boudhiba, extradited, cleared and abandoned in Spain (August 2007), Guantánamo as house arrest: Britain’s law lords capitulate on control orders (November 2007), The Guantánamo Britons and Spain’s dubious extradition request (December 2007), Britain’s Guantánamo: control orders renewed, as one suspect is freed (February 2008), Spanish drop “inhuman” extradition request for Guantánamo Britons (March 2008), UK government deports 60 Iraqi Kurds; no one notices (March 2008), Repatriation as Russian Roulette: Will the Two Algerians Freed from Guantánamo Be Treated Fairly? (July 2008), Abu Qatada: Law Lords and Government Endorse Torture (February 2009), Ex-Guantánamo prisoner refused entry into UK, held in deportation centre (February 2009), Home Secretary ignores Court decision, kidnaps bailed men and imprisons them in Belmarsh (February 2009), Britain’s insane secret terror evidence (March 2009), Torture taints all our lives (published in the Guardian’s Comment is free), Britain’s Guantánamo: Calling For An End To Secret Evidence, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (1) Detainee Y, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (2) Detainee BB, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (3) Detainee U, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (4) Hussain Al-Samamara, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (5) Detainee Z, Britain’s Guantánamo: Fact or Fiction? and URGENT APPEAL on British terror laws: Get your MP to support Diane Abbott’s Early Day Motion on the use of secret evidence (all April 2009), and Taking liberties with our justice system and Death in Libya, betrayal in the West (both for the Guardian), Law Lords Condemn UK’s Use of Secret Evidence And Control Orders (June 2009), Miliband Shows Leadership, Reveals Nothing About Torture To Parliamentary Committee (June 2009), Britain’s Torture Troubles: What Tony Blair Knew (June 2009), Seven years of madness: the harrowing tale of Mahmoud Abu Rideh and Britain’s anti-terror laws, Would you be able to cope?: Letters by the children of control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh, Control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh to be allowed to leave the UK (all June 2009), Testing control orders and Dismantle the secret state (for the Guardian), UK government issues travel document to control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh after horrific suicide attempt (July 2009), Secret evidence in the case of the North West 10 “terror suspects” (August 2009), Letting go of control orders (for the Guardian, September 2009).

 

A Truly Shocking Guantánamo Story: Judge Confirms That An Innocent Man Was Tortured To Make False Confessions

30.9.09
In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release was ordered last week [...]

Andy Worthington Discusses Bagram on al-Jazeera

30.9.09
Yesterday, I was delighted to take part in “Is Bagram The Other Guantánamo?,” a discussion about the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on The Riz Khan Show on al-Jazeera, following a recent announcement by the Obama administration that it is planning to introduce Guantánamo-style tribunals for the 600 or so prisoners held at [...]

Torture And Futility: Is This The End Of The Military Commissions At Guantánamo?

29.9.09
Last Monday, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants in the long-delayed 9/11 trial at Guantánamo were scheduled to make an appearance before their Military Commission judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, to discuss some procedural arrangements and the ongoing dispute about the mental health of one of the men, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the naval [...]

Torture in Bagram and Guantánamo: The Declaration of Ahmed al-Darbi

29.9.09
The following statement, made by Guantánamo prisoner Ahmed al-Darbi on July 1, 2009, was originally posted by the U.C. Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, a University of California research project, coordinated by Almerindo Ojeda, which is well worth visiting. I’m posting it here to accompany my article, “Torture And [...]

A Teenage Refugee Freed From Guantánamo And Released In Ireland

29.9.09
On Sunday, following the revelation of the identity of one of two Uzbeks released from Guantánamo to take up a new life in the Republic of Ireland, I published a letter from Guantánamo written by this man, Oybek Jabbarov, and also included a statement by his lawyer, Michael J. Mone Jr., to a Committee of [...]

Obama Drops Plan For New “Indefinite Detention” Policy At Guantánamo

28.9.09
Last Wednesday, Obama administration officials told the Washington Post, as Peter Finn described it, that the administration “has decided not to seek legislation to establish a new system of preventive detention to hold terrorism suspects.”
In some ways, of course, this is a relief. In May, in a major speech on national security, when President Obama [...]

The Story of Oybek Jabbarov, An Innocent Man Freed From Guantánamo

27.9.09
Yesterday I reported that the US government had released three prisoners from Guantánamo, repatriating Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a Yemeni, and sending two unidentified prisoners — presumed to be Uzbeks — to new homes in Ireland. I suspected that one of the men was Oybek Jabbarov, an Uzbek who was cleared for release from [...]

The Guantánamo Archive: 600 Blog Posts And Counting …

27.9.09
I never dreamed, when I began blogging full-time two years and four months ago, as an offshoot of my book The Guantánamo Files, that the Internet offered such extraordinary opportunities for independent journalists to focus on particular issues and to get their voices heard, or that I would end up with a million-word archive chronicling [...]

Former Guantánamo Prisoner Binyam Mohamed Speaks (Video)

27.9.09
On August 30, at “Beyond Guantánamo,” an event organized by Cageprisoners, the British resident Binyam Mohamed, who was subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and torture, and was finally released from Guantánamo in February this year, after nearly seven years in US custody, spoke for the first time in public. Binyam talked about Shaker Aamer, the British [...]

Three Prisoners Released From Guantánamo: Two To Ireland, One To Yemen

26.9.09
Reuters, following up on an announcement by the Justice Department, has just reported that three prisoners have been released from Guantánamo. Two men, who have not been identified, have been sent to Ireland, following successful negotiations between the Irish government and Daniel Fried, the Obama administration’s Special Envoy to Guantánamo. Their identities are being protected [...]

 After this post was made, I received an email of thanks for a comment on the story on his blog straightaway. Below is  an extract.

Good to hear from you. I appreciated the Orwell analogy - and thanks 
for the links!
Best,
Andy

-- Andy Worthington
Author & journalist

 

the author of "The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees 
in America's Illegal Prison"
(published by Pluto Press and distributed in the US by Macmillan)
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/the-guantanamo-files/
See the definitive prisoner list here:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/03/03/guantanamo-the-definitive-prisoner-list/

To receive automatic feeds of Andy's articles on publication, visit:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/feed/

 


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]