Chris Hedges, veteran war reporter and author of War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning and many other books, discusses the convergence of the Egyptian and American national security states as their puppet military dictatorship kidnaps and tortures people at the best of the U.S. government, the incompatibility of the rule of law and a republican form of government with empire and oligarchy, the “ghost prisons” and “ghost detainees,” held by the U.S. government around the world, the tortured (and false) testimony of Ibn-al Shaykh al-Libi which was used by Colin Powell in his UN speech to justify aggressive war against Iraq, how Mamdah Habib was threatened with rape by an animal, the perhaps thousands of victims of these crimes, his article about American war crimes in Iraq (soon to become a book), the Egyptian war against domestic dissidents, the long term consequences of abandoning law and the American population’s preference for Amusing Ourselves to Death.
MP3 here. (26:00)
Chris Hedges has been a war reporter for 15 years most recently for the New York Times. He is author of What Every Person Should Know About War, a book that offers a critical lesson in the dangerous realities of war. He’s also author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.
Scott Horton is right in interpreting Bush’s remarks in Spain as showing that Bush feels no compunction about the killing of thousands and thousands of Arabs who are dark and live far away. Even Chris Hedges doesn’t get that Bush was admitting the callous racism that he feels. I mean, as an aside, note Bush’s indecent debonair look at the suffering of the Blacks and poor left to be stranded without resources in New Oreans. Bush is the president that Eisenhower warned us about, who, with the connivance of Congress, is inclined to indulge in perpetual war. Wonderful interview between two very well educated and compassionate Americans.
there is something wrong with the podcast link. also, the next item down is missing. help?
Dan,
Sorry about that, they’re having problems over at the dissentradio server. They say they’re working on it now…
Should be working fine now.
How do you train a dog to rape someone?
What was that a reference to? Yes, we’ve killed more Iraqis than Saddam ever did..Saddam’s enemies were Fundamentalist Wahabi Sunnis ( like Al Quaeda ) and fervent Shias…He protected the Christians in Iraq..That’s true: the one time a Church was desecrated Saddam found out who was responsible and had them executed…
And the taking back of Kuwait ( once part of what is now Iraq and governed out of Basra until broken off by the British 100 yrs ago ) could have been viewed as payment for not getting all the help he was promised by Rumsfeld during his war with Iran-though we and our allies gave him a hell of a lot…then used those chem-bio battlefield weapons as justification for the invasion in ’03….
And Ambassador Glasbie gave him the “green light” in their famous meeting just a couple of weeks before the invasion…And now our Middle East foreign policy is run by people who lust for the “privatization” of Iraq’s oil…worry about Israel’s long-term security-the 51st state don’t you know and think all their war profits will buy them air conditioning in Hell…..
Yes, all the mammon accumulated by the US NeoFascisti through the use of every lie, every fraud, every brutal murder of another human being on their watch and at their behest (no, I did not vote for their feral takeover at all) will gladly pay Free Trade Market Value for a fine air conditioned Tortu-Matic cell with Low Intimate Lighting in that Stinking Hot Place, likely enough.
But as Gary “Far Side” Larson once pointed out in his immortal cartoon, “The Library of Hell”, there is always a Story Problem with *everything* in those regions. My own time spent there corroborates his “take” on the matter entirely.
The Two-Tier Air Conditioning Account System is a prime example of this aspect of That Place. The going rate (subject to the normal fluctuations) is roughly seventeen dollars /per/ /diem/ (in gold, if you please, very good, now go back to your cell!) right now for the Standard A/C Package.
The Standard Package a/c unit boasts the capacity to pump twice the heat ones’ cell is routinely provided with (also at the Going Rate; now pay up!). But (Story Problem!) in which direction?
Y’see, the Standard package units’ mounting kits only allow unit mounting with the condenser (the OUTPUT side of the Heat Pump) facing YOUR cell’s INTERIOR. No matter where one permits the mounting hole to be knocked in ones’ cell wall, someone ELSE gets to bask under those frosty-cool evaporator coils.
But you are in Hell. Your altruism will gain you NOTHING!
Turning that little minor insignificant item around includes a prerequisite one-time (more or less) Service Fee (variable because it is outsourced, but never less than a bazillion bux) – and an additional daily recurring charge to your account of roughly a quindillion simoleons. In gold. Whether the thing works afterward or not. Or else.
Gee. Even a s**tload of hard-robbed worldly mammon has a finite limit to its material quantity and value in Hell! Besides, there are these Recurring Excise Fees. Debtor’s Prison in Hell looms large for those goonyboyz in the Afterlife, one might well surmise. (No A/C and less of Just Everything except the pain and suffering, one might imagine.)
They actualized it all over Afghanistan and Iraq. This we know. They are greedy. (This too we know.) They surely must have wanted all of Hell for themselves! (They are welcome to it, the little masochists. Just leave me off the Guest List at that little pah-tay, is all I insist upon.)
For the Inside Poop on such aspects of Life, the Universe, and Everything, the astute spiritual scholar/traveler may wish to visit http://www.divisiontheory.com for a detailed rundown of the Divine Comedic Industrial-Strength Recycling and Refining Process.
Contemplating karma can be a sweetly engaging pastime, can’t it? (Blazing apparitions, created by magicians…) Just don’t get too cocky or at all gloatful, is all. A word to the wise is enough.
Doot-doot-doo, lookin’ out mah back door!
It is ironic if we remember the Department of Defense (sic) played a major role in helping to develop the interent. The hope being it could be used in times of military crisis. Today it is the anti-war websites which are the greatest resource available to us to end this insane war in the distant sands.
Anyway all you have to do is threaten someone with rape by a dog, whether or not it is actually capable of doing so or actually does so. Most people couldn’t know for sure whether the threat was real or not; you’re pretty much tortured and terrorized either way.
Americans of conscience and american workers are morally and financially raped by their federal government dogs everyday. You get used to it.
I am concerned about the safety of Mr. Hedges in the light of all that has happened to American citizens who have recently spoken out in the past. I am also very tired and depressed with all of the information that shows the terrible state that the world is in. What in fact do we do about this? Where can I go to exert an effort as a force for good? Is there anyone out there who can lead us out of this mess, or at least point us in the right direction? Please, someone, give me a reason to hope.