Who cares what Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it? That isn’t the point. The point is what it is that she is accused of knowing – That the Bush Administration, in violation of both US Law and International Treaty, tortured people. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Donald Rumsfeld
Janice Karpinski to Cheney: Where Were You Five Years Ago?
Dick Cheney on Fox News: “I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven’t announced this up till now, I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”
Former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski wonders why Cheney did not make these claims when active service members were facing charges for abuses at Abu Ghraib. She claims that Donald Rumsfeld and his subordinates ordered these activities and that he and Cheney remained silent during these prosecutions.
UN Official: Clear evidence Rumsfeld ‘ordered torture’
I am sorry to post two videos in a row, but this one is important.
United Nations “Special Rapporteur on Torture” Manfred Nowak told CNN’s Rick Sanchez that the U.S. had an “obligation” to investigate whether Bush administration officials ordered torture. Nowak believes that there is already enough evidence to prosecute Donald Rumsfeld.
“We have clear evidence. In our report that we sent to the United Nations, we made it clear that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld clearly authorized torture methods and he was told at that time by Alberto Mora, the legal council of the Navy, ‘Mr. Secretary, what you are actual ordering here amounts to torture.’ So, there we have the clear evidence that Mr. Rumsfeld knew what he was doing but, nevertheless, he ordered torture.”
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Georgie (A Rock Opera Parody)
I originally published this back on 7/20/07, but I wanted to post it again as a final goodbye to George W. Bush. Here is the post as it appears on my blog. I hope you enjoy it one more time. Sorry there are no videos for this. May I suggest you put the CD in your computer and follow it along that way. 
A friend of mine said to me one day, “You know what you should do? You should try to do a whole rock opera, like ‘Tommy’ or something.” “Yeah, right, I doubt I could do a whole album.” As it happened, some time later some ideas came to me that seem to fit “Tommy” the best. To the extent that it came out at all good, we can thank my friend “Tony” (not his real name). And if it doesn’t measure up, the fault lies entirely with me, and not at all with my wife, Jane, who, as she so often does and does well, gave me some tips, advice and corrections along the way. Thank you, Honey. “Tommy”, the Opera, was written by Pete Townshend except for: “Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)”, by Sonny Boy Williamson; “Cousin Kevin” and “Fiddle About”, by John Entwistle; and “Tommy’s Holiday Camp”, by Keith Moon. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to send your friends a link to this blog. Thank you.
No permission was granted by any of the authors for the original songs parodied, nor did I think it possible to even get it. Those authors retain full rights to their work (mostly Pete Townshend). All new lyrics here are copyright 2007, Wayne A. Schneider.
I also have a confession to make. I skipped one of the songs. It is, arguably, the worst song on the album, and I was going nuts trying to write something to it, especially since I didn’t want to have to listen to it while writing. I usually skip that track on the CD, anyway, as I’m sure many of you do. It bogs down the whole thing. That song is, of course, “Welcome.” (“Come to my house, be one of the comfortable people…”) But don’t worry, I picked it right back up from there with the rest of the album. And if I have in any way ruined “Tommy” for any of you by writing and posting this, I do sincerely apologize, and I ask forgiveness. I was only doing it to entertain. Thank you once again.
And we don’t have to take it, either. Write to your Representatives and Senators and demand that President George W. Bush be impeached and removed from office immediately. There is too much time between now and Jan ’09 for him to cause more death, destruction, and devastation, and to start another war with Iran. Remember that the AUMF that allowed him to launch the first attack against Afghanistan said he could attack anyone related to the people responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Lately, he’s been talking about al Qaeda in Iraq as being “the same people who attacked us on Sept 11th.” They are NOT! The group in Iraq claiming allegiance to al Qaeda didn’t form until 2004. Bush is trying to say that Iran is helping these people. By extension, since Iran is aiding “those who attacked us” before, he will claim he already has the authority to attack Iran. And he will not tell the Congress or the U.N. about it first. Remove him from office at once, before it’s too late.
NOTE: Frankly I’m surprised he didn’t do it, but then, he does have three more days, so who knows? And Israel is chomping at the bit to attack Iran because, some day, they might be able to harm Israel. But that’s a subject for another post. Enjoy.
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Iraqi group files 200 lawsuits against Rumsfeld, US security firms for torture
A Jordan-based Iraqi rights group said on Monday it has filed 200 lawsuits against US former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and American security firms for their alleged role in torturing Iraqis.
Ali Qeisi, head of the group the “Society of Victims of the US Occupation in Iraq,” said the cases, relating to torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners, have been recently filed in federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and Maryland.
“Around 30 lawsuits have been accepted so far,” Qeisi told AFP. The others are still under consideration.
“The torture was systemic, and those responsible for it should be punished and the victims should be compensated,” he said.
Qeisi said he himself was tortured by US troops in Iraq during a six-month detention, though he refused to elaborate…
Two hundred lawsuits is just the beginning..
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Mr. Peabody & Sherman: History of Iraq
A history lesson starting back in 1953 to present. Brilliant!
9/11 Plus Seven
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From TomDispatch
The events of the past seven years have yielded a definitive judgment on the strategy that the Bush administration conceived in the wake of 9/11 to wage its so-called Global War on Terror. That strategy has failed, massively and irrevocably. To acknowledge that failure is to confront an urgent national priority: to scrap the Bush approach in favor of a new national security strategy that is realistic and sustainable — a task that, alas, neither of the presidential candidates seems able to recognize or willing to take up.
On September 30, 2001, President Bush received from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a memorandum outlining U.S. objectives in the War on Terror. Drafted by Rumsfeld’s chief strategist Douglas Feith, the memo declared expansively: “If the war does not significantly change the world’s political map, the U.S. will not achieve its aim.” That aim, as Feith explained in a subsequent missive to his boss, was to “transform the Middle East and the broader world of Islam generally.”
Rumsfeld and Feith were co-religionists: Along with other senior Bush administration officials, they worshipped in the Church of the Indispensable Nation, a small but intensely devout Washington-based sect formed in the immediate wake of the Cold War. Members of this church shared an exalted appreciation for the efficacy of American power, especially hard power. The strategy of transformation emerged as a direct expression of their faith.
The members of this church were also united by an equally exalted estimation of their own abilities. Lucky the nation to be blessed with such savvy and sophisticated public servants in its hour of need!
French prosecutors throw out Rumsfeld torture case
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
via: Reuters
The Paris prosecutors’ office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday.
The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.
The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors’ office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a “customary” immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office.
It said in a statement it was “astonished at such a mistaken argument” and said customary immunity from prosecution did not exist under international law. Continue reading…
I can’t say I am surprised, though I am HIGHLY disappointed. I wonder if there will EVER be an accountability for the crimes these people have commited against our country, our Constitution, and the carnage they have wrought on the world.
From the desk of Donald Rumsfeld..
Washington Post came out with an article yesterday on “a series of internal musings and memos to his staff” by Donald Rumsfeld, written between 2002 and 2006 when he left office. The memos were not classified but marked “for official use only.”
- ..that Muslims avoid “physical labor”..
- ..wrote of the need to “keep elevating the threat”..
- “..link Iraq to Iran” and develop “bumper sticker statements” to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war..
- In a 2004 memo on the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Rumsfeld concluded that the challenges there are “not unusual.”
- Under siege in April 2006, when a series of retired generals denounced him and called for his resignation in newspaper op-ed pieces, Rumsfeld produced a memo after a conference call with military analysts. “Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists,” he wrote.
- People will “rally” to sacrifice, he noted after the meeting. “They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory.”
- “It is going to be a long war,” he wrote. “Iraq is only one battleground.”
- In May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine [rename] the terrorism fight as a “worldwide insurgency.”
The good news is that Donald Rumsfeld is no longer Secretary of Defense.
The bad news is that there are still too many neocons involved in the formation of our country’s foreign policy.
The VERY good news is that a Torture suit has be filed against Rumsfeld in France.
The bad news is that he is still walking around, free as a bird.
Speaking of birds.. Continue reading
