Entries Tagged with CIA
November 2nd, 2006
It’s official. It’s a relief to know that I have two diagnoses and two treatment plans now.
The kidney biopsy results apparently led to both diagnoses.
IgA Nephropathy
It’s an autoimmune kidney disease, as I said. The Nephrologist said the prognosis is very good. We have caught it very early — though probably I had it 4 years ago when I saw that Nephrologist who didn’t really run any tests and just dismissed me so I could have caught it even sooner. My kidney functions are still excellent and don’t appear to be damaged yet. She is changing my blood pressure medication to one that will treat both my blood pressure and the IgAN. Unfortunately, this will have to be monitored for the rest of my life at the very least annually if not quarterly to watch for deterioration of my kidneys. Worse case senarios are total renal failure and kidney transplants.
Fibromyalgia
The Rheumatologist is now convinced that my consistantly high SED rate is the result of the IgAN as he’s eliminated everything else it could be in his arsenal and the kidney biopsy proved it’s not vasculitis. He’s given me the official diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and is requesting that my GP increase my sleep med dosage (b/c she prescribed it) and is prescribing water exercise therapy, which I now need to see where my insurance will cover sending me to. Again, I have to go back in 3 months. Unfortunately because of my kidneys, I cannot take any alleve, advil, or asprin to help with the soreness in my muscles or the pain in my hands.
The frustrating thing is that for the most part, there’s not a lot to change from what I’m doing. Just make sure I get more and better sleep at night and get some exercise, preferably water-based since regular exercise aggrevates the muscle pain. Weight loss will also help but without exercise I possibly can’t lose any more without starving myself.
Next Up
I’m seeing a GI specialist next week finally who I’m supposed to discuss the lack of Gallbladder surgery and possible IBS and acid reflux issues. Good timing as the Previcid seems to be no longer working on the acid reflux.
And the GP wanted to wait until after the kidney biopsy to send me to some sort of pulmonary work-up regarding that persistant cough I’m still having, though not as bad or frequent. I’ve got to try to see her next week about a flu shot too. Oy.
So, there’s good news and lots of moving forward finally! Yay!
Tags: IgAN, fibromyalgia, GI specialist, kidney biopsy, SED rate, rheumatologist, nephrologist, blood pressure, wellness
October 17th, 2006
- A Proposed Small Step For Womenkind — Buttercup @ Buttercup & Bean writes about the problem of unwanted attention from men and how the real problem is not that women are putting themselves in situations where they could become targets but that men feel that they are entitled to any “piece of female ass that shows up in their vicinity.” Excellent post.
- To iPod or not to iPod (or, See the Person!) — Colleen @ For All the World to See wonders if technology isn’t creating a society of isolation and anti-social individuals.
We pass people in the grocery, on the street, at school, at work, in the car and they’re just people. The plural, the generic, the masses.
But they aren’t. Each person is a person.
And what a difference we would make if we saw each one of those people as a person , not as one of a mass.
As an individual, who maybe had a bad day, woke up on the wrong side of the bed, their coffee maker didn’t work this morning, they got in a fight with their kid, they got some unexpected money, they passed a test, they finished a big project, have a headache, found out their mom has cancer, found out their wife was pregnant….
You get the idea.
What if we each did that, maybe not to every person we came in contact with, but made an effort to really see the person we pass on the grocery aisle or who serves us our coffee, or who takes the parking place we had our eye on? What if?
What if we didn’t wear our iPods so as to be lost in our own little world, but instead had the earphones out of our ears, so we heard the little old lady behind us in the grocery ask for help getting something down…or we actually talked to the server who takes our order, instead of talking to them in short, one-word comments while our cell phone is pressed to our face?
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Tags: Women's Rights, iPod, technology, anti-social, outsourcing, India, IT, AIDS, JonBenet Ramsey, Bob Herbert, violence against women
September 27th, 2006
Saw the GP yesterday morning because I’vd had this nasty persistant cough now for a month.
Found out that no one’s happy with my Pulmonary Function tests from last week and that it indicates that my lung capacity is down or something, which is what I’ve been trying to tell them. I mean, I think telling them that I’m out of breath just walking up the stairs in my house or down the block is pretty much the same thing.
Anyway, they can’t really proceed with any good testing until they they can do some x-rays with contrasts apparently, which they can’t do until they find out something from the kidney specialist, who insists he can’t see me before Oct.5th. The GP finds this unacceptable now that everything else is on hold. Apparently, she’s going to call him and try to get me in sooner. We’ll see how that goes for her.
In the meantime, I’ve got a nifty inhaler to try to help me breathe since the cough medicine wasn’t doing anything for the cough.
Oh, and the GI specialist can’t possibly see me before November 9th. Lovely.
Is there a doctor shortage in Maine or just too many sick people?
Tags: wellness, inhaler, pulmonary, kidney specialist
September 20th, 2006
- Thank a Democrat for Lower Gas Prices — Richard Cranium @ The All Spin Zone reminds us that it was Democratic Party Congressional candidate Larry Kissell who held a campaign rally at a gas station in Biscoe, NC on August 3rd to remind voters that the price of gasoline was $1.22/gallon when the GOP incumbent in his district took office. Ever since then, the price of gas has been dropping nationwide.
With third quarter oil industry profit statements due out just before the upcoming elections, it’s pretty easy to assume that the Gouging Oil Party boys in the backroom figured that something had to be done, even if (for the oil companies) it meant taking a bit of a hit on the bottom line for a few months. Ergo, gasoline prices have dropped by nearly 30% in the space of a couple of weeks, even as BP’s shutdown of their Alaskan pipeline continues, and middle east tensions continue apace, and (strangely) the cost of a barrel of crude has dropped by maybe 10%. The good news is that, based on my own water cooler conversation, even the most hard core neocons in our midst understand the play.
So, the next time you fill up your tank and you don’t have to sign over a second mortgage on house to do it, remember that Democratic Party congressional candidate Larry Kissell from NC-8, is more responsible for the drop in prices than anyone else on the planet. Here’s an idea on how to thank Larry: take $10 of that gas savings, and drop it in Larry’s campaign bucket.
- Gas Prices a Republican Dirty Trick — Becky @ Preemptive Karma takes a different look at how the Republicans are using their Big Oil friends to lower gas prices before the 2006 election.
More
Tags: gas prices, oil industry, privacy, CIA, CIA Interrogation Program, George W. Bush, Article 3, Geneva Convention, Congress, John Warner, Colin Powell, Jack Vessey, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, POW, torture, detainees, terrorism, White House, politics, anthrax, 9/11, phobic nation, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI, Martin Luther King Jr., Iraq, International Red Cross, Maher Arar, Canada, Syria, JFK Airport
September 11th, 2006
Remembering the Day
- For Thou Art With Us — Sarah Bunting @ TomatoNation.com was there.
We come up the rise to the corner where a crowd of people has gathered, all looking up, and the towers come into view — the south tower closer to us and to the left. “Ohhh, man,” we both say, and “Jeeeesus Christ,” and “This is not good. This is not good at all. This is fuckin’ bad.” So dumb. So dull. We sound like frat boys when the keg is dry, but there’s nothing else we can say about what we’ve got in front of us. In front of us, high above us, the south tower has a huge hole torn through it, a burning, screaming maw with thick black smoke pouring out. Occasionally, flames lick up one corner of the twisted mouth of the hole and then retreat, only to reappear on the other side. It doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t even seem that serious at first, actually, until I remember just how big the building is, how many stories high — and that the hole must therefore cover twelve stories, at least. “This isn’t the kind of history I want to be present at,” I say, lamely, to Bob. “Me neither,” he says.
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Tags: 9/11, World Trade Center, terrorism, New York, American flag, Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, Conspiracy Theories, George W. Bush, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, ABC, tragedy, patriotism, Ground Zero, We Will Never Forget, al-Qaeda, CIA, Pakistan, Taliban, Joint Special Operations Command, NSA, National Counterterrorism Center, Tora Bora, al-Zawahiri, Paul Krugman, NATO, Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, Pentagon, healthcare, Iraq
August 8th, 2006
- Preparing for Martial Law - Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that President Bush is trying to secretly federalize the National Guard, a move that the National Governors Association is trying to put a stop to. This is the kind of thing a dictator would do, by the way.
- Might as well face it, they’re addicted to porn… - SpinDentist @ The All Spin Zone reports on a poll revelling what I’ve suspected all along — that there are quite a large number of self-identified Christians involving themselves with porn. This may be why so many rightwingers are so interested in what everyone else is doing in their bedrooms.
- ABC’s Good Morning America covers story of gay Arabic speaker kicked out of military - John in DC @ AmericaBlog has a link to ABC’s Good Morning America video coverage of the story. I’ve seen the story reported on several liberal blogs, including Pandagon, but this is the first main stream media coverage I’ve seen. I have to agree with John that it does appear that the military does seem more interested in it’s witch hunt for homosexuals than in helping itself and in stopping the terrorists.
- Senate ratifies Europe cybercrime convention - Michael Hampton @ Homeland Stupidity reports that as of last Thursday night, “the U.S. can now spy on your Internet activity at the request of a foreign government — even if you are only doing things completely legal.” It’s called the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. What does that mean? It’s a treaty which requires its signatories to pass laws against breaking into computer systems, child pornography, Internet fraud, computer viruses, denial of service attacks and related crimes.
The treaty requires the U.S. to turn over data stored by Internet Service Providers, and provide real-time interception of your Internet traffic, at the request of a foreign government, whether the offense the foreign government is investigating is a crime in the U.S. or not.
“That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation activist coordinator Danny O’Brien. “American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdictions’ requests to log their users’ behavior without due process, or compensation.”
“And it applies not just to ‘cyber’ crimes but to digital evidence of any crime, so foreign governments now may begin using U.S. law enforcement to help them gather evidence in all kinds of cases,” wrote Cato Institute Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper.
- Gunning for PBS - Steve Aqui @ Donklephant writes about the GOP’s targeting of funding for NPR and PBS and how the GOP would prefer both would just disappear. Steve points out how hypocritical the GOP is with it’s big tax cuts and it’s attempts to eliminate the estate tax and yet it claims there’s no money to help handicap children or pay for public radio and television or reduce the deficit.
Tags: PBS, NPR, GOP, Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, ABC, Good Morning America, Christians, George W. Bush, National Guard, National Governors Association, EFF
August 7th, 2006
Aug. 4 - BCN - Members of an Iranian university’s international alumni association are expressing frustration that more than 100 visa holders traveling to the United States to attend the group’s fourth reunion in Santa Clara have had their visas revoked.
Elahe Enssani, a spokeswoman for the Sharif University of Technology Alumni Association conference, which began today at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency, said all 12 of the conference registrants who were arriving at San Francisco International Airport were denied entry and that only 15 of 105 visa applicants who had hoped to come to the conference have been allowed entry into the U.S. [“Visas Revoked For Iranians Attending Conference” (ABC7News)]
Mind you, all of the 100+ Iranians whose visas were revoked had made it through the background checks previously. They’d gone through all of the proper channels and filled out all of the proper paperwork. They were all educated professionals and their family members. The U.S. allowed them to board planes and make the 30-hour journey to the United States and then at their own financial expense were turned around and sent home or, worse, were held for days for questioning due to “national security” concerns.
“I really look forward to the reunion,” she said. The conference draws together people who remember an era — when Iran was governed by the shah — to which no one can return, she explained.
The Sharif University of Technology Alumni Association conference draws professionals from around the world and the U.S.
[…]
Information about the individuals denied visas is unavailable for confidentiality reasons, according to Laura Tischler, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the U.S. State Department.<
Tischler said only that her understanding was that the Iranian visitors were denied entry because their visas were revoked.
The revocations are not connected to current hostilities in the Middle East, she said. Visitors can be denied visas at any time and for a range of reasons, she said.
"Iranians are subject to special processing because Iran is a state that has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism," she said. "That's been the case for a few years." [“Visas Revoked For Iranians Attending Conference” (ABC7News)]
Related Articles:
Iranian Professionals’ U.S. Visas Revoked (L.A. Times)
Visa fray prompts worry, anger (The Mercury News)
15 Iranians turned away from Calif. airports after visas revoked (The Mercury News)
Tags: Iran, Sharif University of Technology Alumni Association
July 26th, 2006
- The Godless West — The (liberal)Girl Next Door has a post about the religious breakdown of the U.S. based on a map that appeared in USA Today. It’s kind of a surprise actually.
It’s interesting to see the geographical differences, Lutherans in the North, Baptists in the South, Catholics in the Northeast and a bunch of non-religious folks out West. What I found most interesting though is that no-religion places in the top three in just about every state while Evangelicals, if they rank at all, top out at 2%. How is it that such a small minority has so much influence on our government?
- It’s Official, We’re All Living in A Kafka Novel — The All Spin Zone points to an article that originally appeared on The Denver Channel about how Air Marshalls have quotas to make and they’ve been adding people to watch lists for doing things like taking photos on airplanes. You can also read about it at Pam’s House Blend. More
Tags: politics, Air Marshals, religion, American Bar Association, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon
June 19th, 2006
I had a horrible night last night. Not only was my insomnia acting up really awful but my mind was racing all night about some sort of check boxes, turning them on and off in some sort of program and this had to do with the pain in my body but I couldn’t get it right and the whole night my body was in excruciating pain — I now imagine this is what the Cruciatus Curse in Harry Potter must feel like. All I kept thinking as the night went on is that there had to be a correct combination of checked boxes to make the pain stop.
Anyway, against my doctor’s advice this morning but under J’s, I took 2 Alleve with the 2 Tylenol my doctor told me to take. So far I don’t feel any better. When I woke up, my feet felt as if I’d been working behind the counter of a customer service desk for 10 hours and so did the back of my thighs and that kind of pain never went away quickly for me.
To be honest, I don’t feel rested at all and I feel like that Ambien was a complete waste. I need to find a way to rest at night. I think that would help a great deal.
Tags: fibromyalgia, insomnia, Cruciatus Curse, Harry Potter
April 24th, 2006
I watched 60 Minutes last night and I’ve been reading all of the related articles on Yahoo!News, The Washington Post, CNN, and Reuters. O.K. It’s all the same article. They all say the same thing. And really for those of us liberals who’ve been paying attention since 2002, it’s nothing new. In fact, there wasn’t anything in that report I hadn’t heard before, so it’s hard to get excited.
And I know none of the conservative right-wingers were paying attention anyway so it was just preaching to the choir. In fact, I stopped by Fox News and there’s no mention of the story on their website, not even something to refute Tyler Drumheller’s claims that the White House flat out ignored CIA intelligence that conflicted with what they needed to make the case for war in Iraq.
“The (White House) group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested,” he was quoted as saying in interview excerpts released by CBS on Friday.
“We said: ‘Well, what about the intel?’ And they said: ‘Well, this isn’t about intel anymore. This is about regime change’,” added Drumheller, whose CIA operation was assigned the task of debriefing the Iraqi official. [“Ex-CIA agent says WMD intelligence ignored” (Reuters)]
Tags: WMD, Tyler Drumheller, Fox News, Yahoo!News, Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, White House, CIA, Intelligence, Iraq, 60 Minutes
April 24th, 2006
169: Number of days that elapsed between Dana Priest’s article on secret prisons and the firing of the supposed leaker. 1,014 and counting: Number of days that have elapsed since Valerie Plame’s identity was published without anyone having been fired. [“Leak Hypocricy”(Think Progress)]
Tags: Conspiracy Theories, politics, Valerie Plame, Dana Priest, secret prisons, CIA, leaks, hypocrisy
April 7th, 2006
Is there anyone left in this country who really truly believes that Bush hasn’t already authorized the NSA to spy on Americans using wiretaps on purely domestic calls?
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales left open the possibility yesterday that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on telephone calls occurring solely within the United States — a move that would dramatically expand the reach of a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.
In response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Gonzales suggested that the administration could decide it was legal to listen in on a domestic call without supervision if it were related to al-Qaeda.
“I’m not going to rule it out,” Gonzales said.
In the past, Gonzales and other officials refused to say whether they had the legal authority to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on domestic calls, and have stressed that the NSA eavesdropping program is focused only on international communications.
Gonzales previously testified in the Senate that Bush had considered including purely domestic communications in the NSA spying program, but he said the idea was rejected in part because of fears of a public outcry. He also testified at the time that the Justice Department had not fully analyzed the legal issues of such a move. [“Warrantless Wiretaps Possible in U.S.” (Washington Post)]
Generally, by the time this kind of questioning is going on publically, the authorization has apparently already been made if history is any indication with Bush and his administration. Of course, my crazy activist co-worker’s been calling the phone company trying to get them to admit her phone is tapped for months and I’ve assumed since working for the government that mine is so I don’t actually blame Bush for that one. I just thought I’d pass the news on.
Tags: Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush, Senate, warrantless wiretapping, spying on Americans, Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Committee, NSA
March 2nd, 2006
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million,” [Rep. Bennie Thompson] said. “Six months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes and livelihoods of millions along the Gulf Coast, the truth about what the president knew and when he knew it has come to light.”[“Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe” (Yahoo!News)]
The blogsphere is all-a-buzz with the news of the video aquired by Associated Press, which you can view at Crooks and Liars, that reveals that Bush was well-briefed on the potential devestation of Hurricane Katrina, including the kind of flooding that actually occurred because of those breached levees — exactly as Michael Brown claimed in his recent testimony to Congress.
I’ve said before that I’m a fan of Republican and former Bush-employee Louisiana Senator David Vitter. I particularly like what he had to say in response — that the video “makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That’s what made the failures in response — at the local, state and federal level — all the more outrageous.” [“Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe” (Yahoo!News)]
I’m sure that the right-winger loyalists who simply refuse to believe that President Bush could do wrong will find some flimsy excuse, but then I’ve maintained all along that it’s easier to deny the truth than accept you’ve put your faith in the wrong person. Anyway, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid charges this is another sign that Bush administration officials have “systematically misled the American people.”
More
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Associated Press, Crooks & Liars, David Vitter, George W. Bush, politics
December 20th, 2005
“The president does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow.”
– Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat [“Bush stands by right to order spying inside US (FT.com)]
Traditionally, US law forbids the NSA and the CIA from spying inside the US. That sort of thing usually falls into the FBI’s realm of operations and then only with a court order for setting up wire taps and the like.
Yet shortly after 9/11, President Bush ordered the NSA to tap telephone conversations inside the US, supposedly targeting persons (yes, including American citizens — especially American citizens) suspected of “connections with terrorists”. Mind you, among those targeted were the ACLU, a vegan group, and Americans involved in anti-war protests — Americans exercising their freedom to disagree with the government.
Sounds a little like Nixon to me.
We all remember Nixon, right? Well, those of us who are too young to have followed it closely at the time got a full helping of it in American History classes anyway. One of the things Nixon got in trouble for was abusing his Presidential power by authorizing the illegal wiretapping of Americans. He used wiretaps on all sorts of groups, people, politicians…anyone who didn’t agree with him…
Since 1979, 19,000 requests for eavesdropping the Federal Intelligence Security Court has received from the Executive Branch since 1979, only five have ever been refused.[“A TIME TO IMPEACH”] While President Bush claimed that his authorization of wiretaps without warants was necessary because action has to be taken quickly against the “terrorists”, reportedly, the secret FISA court can grant approval for wiretaps “within hours”.
If that’s the case, then why wouldn’t our President want to do everything by the book? If FISA’s court has a tradition of handing out warants at the drop of the hat, why wouldn’t he want those wiretap on some sort of official and legal record? Why wouldn’t our President want anyone backing him up officially?
Obviously, if he’s trying to circumvent the law, he must have something to hide, right? I mean, it just seems so suspicious…and he seems awfully defensive of the whole thing. Why did he choose the NSA for this task rather than the FBI if it was all legal and proper? Who didn’t he want to know and why? If it were all on the up-and-up, why is he worried?
Tags: politics, George W. Bush, warrantless wiretapping, NSA, spying on Americans, FBI, Russ Feingold, FISA, ACLU, CIA, Conspiracy Theories
October 26th, 2005
One of the things I find fascinating as I watch the whole PlameGate story unfold is the focus of Main Stream Media and most blogs on the lies told to cover up that the CIA leak actually came from the White House, from near the top. No one in MSM and very few bloggers are publically questioning why Valerie Plame’s identity was leaked.
Oh, yes, I know they’re reporting that her identity was leaked in retaliation for her husband’s, Joe Wilson’s, public statements refuting their so-called evidence that Iraq had bought uranium from Nigeria.
The question people should be asking is why did they feel the need to retailiate? Wasn’t their evidence strong enough to withstand the criticism of one retired diplomat?
It just seems to me that they went to a lot of trouble just to discredit someone politically just because he said their information was wrong. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to prove their evidence was correct?
Unless that wasn’t possible; in which case, why not admit they were misled then?
The sad part is that if they had stepped up then and admitted that the information was questionable, they could have avoided a lot of things, not just the whole PlameGate thing but all the speculation that there was a conspiracy by the White House to take us to War in Iraq for their own nefarious reasons.
Unless, it was a conspiracy all along.
Tags: politics, PlameGate, CIA, Joe Wilson, Iraq
July 20th, 2005
In case anyone missed it, there’s a really good post at Preemptive Karma on this subject. In fact, I couldn’t have said it better. With the Bush administration it’s all about smoke and mirrors. If there was a Democrat in the White House, Kenneth Star would already be investigating all the discrepencies and if he couldn’t find evidence to prove what an increasing number of Americans seem to be realizing, then he’d focus on Bush’s personal life. I honestly feel like in the face of being pressured to fire one of his buddies, he actually pointed off in another direction with those squinty eyes all wide and said, “Look over there! What’s that?” and while most of us have turned to have a look at what invisible thing he’s pointing at, he’s grabbed Karl Rove and is running the other way…and John Roberts has become something of a sacrificial lamb, having been thrown to the media and political wolves.
Tags: Karl Rove, CIA, PlameGate, John Roberts, politics
July 16th, 2005
Man, I worked my ass off in high school to save money so I could go to Space Camp, which was infinitely better than all the Chrisitan Summer Camps my parents packed me off to in my elementary years. Still, my dreams of becoming an astronaut were pretty futile with my poor health.
I’d also dreamt of working at the FBI, CIA, or NSA, not as a field agent — obviously that sort of thing isn’t right for me. I mean, I might have had to -er- run for my life or point a gun at someone or something. I did, however, dream of becoming an analyst, but finding out what they were searching for back then was like trying to get the truth about the War in Iraq out of the Bush Administration.
Luckily for kids these days, with the expanding Homeland Security, the CIA at least is doing some proactive recruiting, focusing on high schoolers who may be assets later. I’m jealous.
NPR : A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA
A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA
All Things Considered, July 15, 2005 · The intelligence services of the U.S. are looking for a few good men and women and are taking steps to make sure they can find them in the future. Trinity College is running a “spy camp” for high-school kids this summer. The kids will learn about intelligence work and spy craft in weeklong sessions. The camp is free, but you can’t tell anyone what you learn.
Oh, and while I was searching for information on the above program, I discovered that there are a number of summer camps like this one in Pennsylvania focusing on children of all ages. Get them while they’re young before they’ve had a chance to form opinions of their own, right?
I’m still jealous. I so would have rather gone to spy camp than space camp — which by the way was nothing like the movie. 
Tags: CIA, FBI, NSA, spy camp, NPR
June 20th, 2005
Remember back around fall 2001, when President Bush said that finding Osama Bin Laden was our highest priority? Remember when he said that the U.S. would not tolerate countries that harbored terrorists?
What the fuck happened?
From CNN.com:
CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an “excellent idea” where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened…
[TIME] magazine asked Goss when bin Laden would be captured.
“That is a question that goes far deeper than you know,” he said. “In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we’re probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.
“We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you’re dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play.
“We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.
Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: “I have an excellent idea where he is. What’s the next question?”
Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he name the country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of sanctuaries.
We invaded a country that might or might not have weapons of mass destruction because they might use them one day though we had no proof and still have no proof. We alienated half of the world by insisting we invade without their agreement. We insisted that we knew better and could do whatever the hell we wanted and not worry about the repurcusians…and yet still no Bin Laden and now all of a sudden, we don’t want to step on any toes or upset any Middle East countries?
Tags: Osama bin Laden, CIA, Porter Goss, War on Terror
May 5th, 2004
This whole thing with the Iraqi prisoners who were abused, humilated, and/or killed really disturbs me. Somewhere deep inside, I’ve always suspected this sort of behavior was being perpetuated by American Intelligence and Military, but like most Americans, I really wanted to believe that “we” were above that. After all, as a nation, we are supposed to be role models. We are protectors of the persecuted, liberators of the unfree. We are supposed to be all politically correct. We are supposed to be “better” than everyone else.
But, honestly, I see how much persecution goes on in our own country. We have homeless and hungry. We still have racism running amuck — heck, we even say that those who historically have acted on their racism, who have burned, lynched, and harmed people in the past, have rights. Heck, it is still legal for a person to be denied admitance into some organizations due to color of skin, religion, or gender — as outrageous as it sounds, how open do you think the KKK would be to members that aren’t “of the right” whatever? Yet,this organization is allowed to exist, is allowed to have meetings and marches and protests…
Every few months, we hear about grevious and outrageous wrongs done to innocent people — recently I saw in the news about a man who was burning the corpse of an infant in his backyard. There are rapes, murders, kidnappings, and a variety of crimes done against Americans by Americans every day. There are wife-beaters and chid abusers.
And these are things we are doing to ourselves.
Imagine what one might do to someone he or she thinks is a lesser person just for not being an American. Americans are dying in Iraq. I’m sure that the tension is pretty thick over there. It’s no excuse.
And I’ve heard that several of the accused are taking the stand that they were following orders from higher up in the military or from CIA operatives. Still not an excuse. Isn’t that what a lot of the Nazi war criminals claimed? They can’t be blamed for just following orders? If they are the heroes that their stunned and confused friends and families are arguing they were when they left home, they would have stood up for those inalienable rights of those people (some of whom have turned out to be innocent bystanders accidently arrested) that they were sent to Iraq to free from an inhumane and intollerable regime run by a sick and twisted dictator.
And to think, all the good we were supposed to be doing over there (and I still don’t agree that we should have gone over there in the first place and certainly we were lied to about the reasons) is now tainted as they have proven to all of those anti-American types that we are exactly the monsters they believe us to be and there is nothing that our President or anyone else can say now that will take any of those outrageous autrocities back. There’s nothing to be done to fix it. Oh, yes, we can appologize, and we can punish the offenders, and we can promise with bright eyes that we will never do it again, but we can’t prove it and certainly, I’m not sure I’d believe it. The taint is there and I’ll never be able to forget that we are not the high-and-mighty coutry we claimed to be. In fact, we aren’t much better than they are — we just have more money and better toys.
In the end, we’re all human, a little rough around the edges — part angel, part monster. It’s just that some of us, let the monster win a little bit more often in the struggle for our humanity than they do the angel. In fact, more often than not, it does seem like the monsters are winning.
Tags: Iraq, detainees, Conspiracy Theories, CIA
