Apparently, something has changed here at blogger so that I cannot bring you the video here at this site.
You must see this, and spread it around as much as you can. My hope is that it will go viral.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45996572#45996572
Americans are one of the most propagandized of any people in the world. We have a major newspaper asking its readers how much truth they need to reveal to its readers, let alone making any attempt to actually do that.
We have a comedian running in South Carolina ( Where the heck is Publius on this? Your country, your readers need you more than ever! ) exposing the fraud and lies of our Democracy.
It takes a foreign court to do the job that the US legal system, with notable exceptions, has failed to do.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-13/news/30624630_1_guantanamo-bay-spanish-judge-probe
bb
Come on BB. That guy in the video about Gitmo.... Doesn't speak English. Doesn't look like a WASP. Gotta be a terrorist.
ReplyDeleteI posted this on a message board with the title "something all US citizens need to see".
DeleteThis is the first detainee I've actually seen and heard speak about his experience.
What I think of in the face of something like this is the last few words of the Bible.
bb
I introduced the subject of Gitmo for class discussion with this text from Scott Horton . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://harpers.org/archive/2012/01/hbc-90008390
Our conclusions were that the US had sustained mass systemic failure (legal system, "rule of law", press responsibility, government accountability, maintaining a rational political dialogue in domestic politics, the reputation of the US in the world, etc.) . . . but who in the US really cares?
Back when Olbermann was on nationwide cable, he would have Jonathan Turley on regularly and Scott Horton on a few times.
Deletebb
Wait until someone finds out I have been a member of an Antiochian Orthodox parish (Under the Patriarch of Antioch in Damascas, Syria) on three occasions in my life! Will that cause me problems next time I pass through Immigration when visiting the US? Perhaps I'm disguising myself with my Sicilian surname? After all, I hung out with hundreds of Arabic people as far back as 1969, and have even sung parts of the worship service in Arabic! So what if we were Christians?
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons we converted to Orthodoxy was the beauty of the language in the Divine Liturgy.
Deleteya rah burrham!
The major reason was the warmth of the people we met, people who now are smeared by the talk of the day, jihadists, America-haters etc. Not so much then, of course, but it is an effective protection against the phony bullshit language of the PWOT (tm) we hear now.
We've had to drop our cable service, but if we do get it back, I want one I can get al Jazeera.
I'm tired of the dreck we get here called news.
Talking of language, you might enjoy this:
http://www.arabicmusictranslation.com/2009/06/bushra-lord-have-mercy-aman-aman.html
bb
When you guys are all wearing orange jump suits, be sure to tell them that old Podunk Paul doesn't share your views, is a 100% patriot and votes Republican.
ReplyDeletepp,
ReplyDeletei hope i'm ot.
yesterday my local Floridian plumber told me that he's a Republican. imagine that. BTW his name is not Joe.
My question to him was--what does the Repub party do for you , a working guy??
No answer.
jim
bb,
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that the former guards at gitmo are being pretty secretive about their tours.
where's all the books that you'd expect to see?
jim
"Our conclusions were that the US had sustained mass systemic failure"
ReplyDeleteI would like to think that this was a massive systemic failure, but unfortunately, the truth says otherwise, and you might want to inform your class of this...
This was a carefully planned, and deliberately executed coup against the United States Constitution with collusion of the American populace, albeit with a clever employment of dissembling, deception, and usurpation of good-will by the US government.
And the coup...unfortunately, is still on-going.
We have already reached the point where the good-will has run out, and questions are now being asked, most notably, with the NDAA which Obama himself asked for the provisions of detention, though he plays the part of "oh, no, no, no...we would never do that...oh, that's horrendous."
We are now at the tipping point of a totalitarian state...with the love and support of a significant part of the American populace.
And that...that part of "Love and support" is what should seriously scare the living shit out of every member state of the world body.
That’s a good point, Ranger. Why don’t Gitmo guards talk? In part it’s because we don’t hear much from rapists or wife-beaters. But there’s another reason, which I can speak of from personal experience. I once had a high-falutin’ job with severe pressure to produce, to dress right, to think right. It was easy, de rigueur, to look down, express contempt for waiters, helicopter pilots, in short, for those who facilitated our activities. So to make monsters out of people, all that’s necessary is to mistreat them and point them to others lower on the chain.
Deletejim:
ReplyDeletewhere's all the books that you'd expect to see?
The survival rate for whistleblowers and other such tell-alls isn't bright and rosy these days.
bb
Just thinking out loud here, but how can we categorically be cruel to others? The standard answer is that the victims must first be dehumanized, transformed into animals. But that’s misleading. All that’s required is to establish a moral hierarchy. The aggressor must consider himself superior by virtue of money, education, youth, ethnic background – there are hundreds of ways to do this. And the aggressor must be put under stress for the notion of belonging to an elite to have resonance. Hence, concentration guards were SS members, urinators on corpses Marines, architects of American torture holders of advanced degrees in psychology. Victims are human enough, but they're inferior humans whose humiliation becomes something kin to duty. I suspect that Gitmo guards, most of them anyway, are proud of what they do and feel no need to make public confessions.
ReplyDelete