Saddam Hussein trial begins

Saddam Hussein’s trial has begun. As of 7am EST Wednesday, you can tune into any news channel and see idiots say “spider hole” repeatedly over near-silent tape-delayed footage.

Doofus on MSNBC explains that the tape delay is “in case there’s a outburst or something… or a security incident.”

No explanation for the 1/20th volume behind them so far, or news of whether the Iraqis can actually watch it.

The Torture Question

Frontline ran a very detailed story of how secretary of defense Rumsfeld and his jack-booted Gestapo lackey General Geoffrey MillerGitmoized” the interrogations of detainees in Iraq. Their website has great backround, such as “Examining the Paper Trail“, video of Camp Delta, lawyers defending torture with make-believe TV timebomb senarios and many interviews including the groundbreaking story of US Army interrogator Spc. Tony Lagouranis (Ret.) who admits he tortured the hell out of Iraqis and tells us:

“Well hypothermia was a widespread technique. I haven’t heard a lot of people talking about that, and I never saw anything in writing prohibiting it or making it illegal. But almost everyone was using it when they had a chance, when the weather permitted. Or some people, the Navy SEALs, for instance, were using just ice water to lower the body temperature of the prisoner. They would take his rectal temperature to make sure he didn’t die; they would keep him hovering on hypothermia. That was a pretty common technique.

A lot of other, you know, not as common techniques, and certainly not sanctioned, was just beating people or burning them. Not within the prisons, usually. But when the units would go out into people’s homes and do these raids, they would just stay in the house and torture them. Because after the scandal, they couldn’t trust that, you know, the interrogators were going to do “as good a job,” in their words, as they wanted to.”

A couple of bad apples, huh? Oh, well, go ahead and freeze ’em solid, as long as their organs don’t explode.

The entire show is to replay on the Frontline website Wednesday at 12 noon EST.

Oh, yeah, and don’t forget as you read and watch that the DoD eventually admitted to the Red Cross that “70-90 percent” of the Abu Ghraib prisoners were entirely innocent.

Roger L. Simon: Utilitarian Collectivist

In a post called “Collateral Damage,” Roger L. Simon writes

“When you read reports like this, you gasp, even though you know they may be exaggerated or even pure propaganda. But then when you read this, your mind focuses again on the greater reality.”

Yes, the fact that 2.5 years after Bush’s Mayday “Mission Accomplished” speech, Iraq is in such chaos that the USAF is still bombing from the air, and killing 39 civilians – including 18 children, is shocking at first, until one realizes that it’s all for the greater good – er – reality.

We have to keep in mind that the unalienable right to life doesn’t exist for you if you live across water from here, and that yes, somehow, sinking to Saddam’s level makes it all worth while.

The count was fair and accurate

Iraqi election officials said today that they were investigating what they described as “unusually high” vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq’s new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of Saturday’s referendum could be called into question.


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Saddam ‘wins 100% of vote’
There were 11,445,638 eligible voters – and every one of them voted for the president, according to Izzat Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council.

The government insists the count was fair and accurate.