From the Washington Post again:
President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.
No comprehensive files? We shouldn't be surprised, but, once again, I am. If there was a way to get things wrong, you just know that the Bush maladministration would do it.
Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.
I'm surprised that I continue to be surprised by these people.
In a court filing this month, Darrel Vandeveld, a former military prosecutor at Guantanamo who asked to be relieved of his duties, said evidence was "strewn throughout the prosecution offices in desk drawers, bookcases packed with vaguely-labeled plastic containers, or even simply piled on the tops of desks."
He said he once accidentally found "crucial physical evidence" that "had been tossed in a locker located at Guantanamo and promptly forgotten."
What other shocking leftovers from the Bush maladministration await discovery, as the new administration moves forward? Probably not just a few. Remember Cheney's secret meetings with the oil barons early in Bush's first term? The battle goes on for the documents which disclose who attended and what was discussed. We're not really done with the Bushies, and we won't be for a very long time, more's the pity.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The "Good" Guantanamo?
With the help of Arkansas Hillbilly, I'm proud to say that Wounded Bird scooped the Washington Post on the story that Guantanamo was once a relatively decent place.
When Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert and his unit were assigned to Gitmo to meet the first 300 prisoners, they had 96 hours to draw up procedures and rules. They decided to go with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, other U.S. laws, and the Geneva Conventions.
Lehnert said he had been told by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Geneva Conventions would not technically apply to his mission: He was to act in a manner "consistent with" the conventions (as the mantra went) but not to feel bound by them.
What the hell does that mean? When Lehnert tried to bring in the International Committee of the Red Cross, his request was turned down. However, the call to the ICRC had already been made, and they arrived at Gitmo. With their help, Lehnert began to improve the conditions of the prisoners. The military, including the head of the JAG group tried to do the right thing, but Rumsfeld had other ideas.
By late January 2002, according to Brig. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, Lehnert's chief contact at Southern Command, the defense secretary told officers on a video conference call with Southern Command that he was frustrated by the absence of such information [actionable intelligence].
A displeased Rumsfeld seems to have decided to create a second command, one that would exist side by side with Lehnert's. It would be devoted solely to gathering intelligence and would be headed by a reservist major general, a former U.S. Army interrogator during the Vietnam War named Michael Dunlavey. Jackman told me that he considered the idea of two parallel commands a "recipe for disaster." At the same time, Navy Capt. Robert Buehn, the commander of the naval base at Guantanamo, recalled, the Gitmo task force's initial expectations of orders to build a courtroom began to fade.
For two years, the reporter, Karen Greenberg, gathered information through interviews, which essentially supports Arkansas Hillbilly's contention:
I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you again, Arkansas Hillbilly.
President Obama ordered that Guantanamo be shut down within a year. Where will the prisoners go?
And there is a final irony on the horizon.
One of the places now being considered as a new U.S.-based destination for the remaining Gitmo detainees is Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in Southern California. The base's commanding general is none other than Michael Lehnert, now a major general. The detainees might well be returned to his custody. In several senses, we could wind up right back where we started. This time, however, we should have the law on our side -- not to mention a conscience.
You can't make this stuff up. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their minions came together in a perfect storm which resulted in disaster.
When Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert and his unit were assigned to Gitmo to meet the first 300 prisoners, they had 96 hours to draw up procedures and rules. They decided to go with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, other U.S. laws, and the Geneva Conventions.
Lehnert said he had been told by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Geneva Conventions would not technically apply to his mission: He was to act in a manner "consistent with" the conventions (as the mantra went) but not to feel bound by them.
What the hell does that mean? When Lehnert tried to bring in the International Committee of the Red Cross, his request was turned down. However, the call to the ICRC had already been made, and they arrived at Gitmo. With their help, Lehnert began to improve the conditions of the prisoners. The military, including the head of the JAG group tried to do the right thing, but Rumsfeld had other ideas.
By late January 2002, according to Brig. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, Lehnert's chief contact at Southern Command, the defense secretary told officers on a video conference call with Southern Command that he was frustrated by the absence of such information [actionable intelligence].
A displeased Rumsfeld seems to have decided to create a second command, one that would exist side by side with Lehnert's. It would be devoted solely to gathering intelligence and would be headed by a reservist major general, a former U.S. Army interrogator during the Vietnam War named Michael Dunlavey. Jackman told me that he considered the idea of two parallel commands a "recipe for disaster." At the same time, Navy Capt. Robert Buehn, the commander of the naval base at Guantanamo, recalled, the Gitmo task force's initial expectations of orders to build a courtroom began to fade.
For two years, the reporter, Karen Greenberg, gathered information through interviews, which essentially supports Arkansas Hillbilly's contention:
I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you again, Arkansas Hillbilly.
President Obama ordered that Guantanamo be shut down within a year. Where will the prisoners go?
And there is a final irony on the horizon.
One of the places now being considered as a new U.S.-based destination for the remaining Gitmo detainees is Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in Southern California. The base's commanding general is none other than Michael Lehnert, now a major general. The detainees might well be returned to his custody. In several senses, we could wind up right back where we started. This time, however, we should have the law on our side -- not to mention a conscience.
You can't make this stuff up. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their minions came together in a perfect storm which resulted in disaster.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Feast Of The Ordination Of Florence Li Tim-Oi
First Woman Priest In The Anglican Communion, 24 January 1944
Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained a priest by Bp. Ronald Hall of Hong Kong in 1944, primarily because of difficulties occasioned by the Japanese occupation of China. A storm of protest after the war forced her to refrain from exercising her role as a priest. Towards the end of her life, she emigrated to Canada where she was able to resume her priestly duties. She died in 1992.
More is available in a short article about her from the Anglican Journal of Canada, and from the Li Tim-Oi Foundation.
James Kiefer at The Lectionary
Readings:
Psalm 116:1-2
Galatians 3:23-28
Luke 10:1-9
Prayer:
Gracious God, we thank you for calling Florence Li Tim-Oi, much-beloved daughter, to be the first woman to exercise the office of a priest in our Communion; By the grace of your Spirit inspire us to follow her example, serving your people with patience and happiness all our days, and witnessing in every circumstance to our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
UPDATE:
Ann has left a new comment on your post "Feast Of The Ordination Of Florence Li Tim-Oi":
Here is what was on Episcopal Cafe today.
A hundred years ago a baby was about to be born in the fishing village of Aberdeen on Hong Kong island. Its gender was not known. Boy babies were highly prized. At that time, in that culture, a bowl of ash could be at hand to smother unwanted new-born girls. The baby who was born on 5 May 1907 was wanted. Her Christian father, a doctor turned headteacher, valued his new daughter and called her Tim-Oi, “Much Beloved.” That decision began a chain of events which has changed the Church.
Tim-Oi completed her primary schooling at 14, but her five brothers and 2 sisters meant there were no funds for further schooling until she was 21. She left school aged 27. While a student she joined an Anglican church, and at her baptism took the Christian name Florence, because her birth-month, May, is a month of flowers, and because she admired Florence Nightingale.
In 1931 she was at the ordination in Hong Kong cathedral of an English deaconess. The Chinese preacher asked if there was a Chinese girl also willing to sacrifice herself for the Chinese church. She prayed: “God, would you like to send me?” That call never left her. In 1934 she started a four year course at Union Theological College in Canton, where her New Testament tutor was Geoffrey Allen, later to be Bishop of Derby, England. Her family couldn’t afford the college fees which were paid by the Anglican church. While at college she led a team of students rescuing the casualties of Japanese carpet bombing, and narrowly escaped being a casualty herself.
Time does not allow to tell her full story: of her licence to preside for two years at Holy Communion in the absence of a priest in Macau; of the bishop brought up in a Tractarian [High Church] vicarage who was not happy with lay celebration and ordained her a Priest of God on 25 January 1944, because God had clearly shown that He had already given her the gift of priesthood. After the War, pressured by what I call a “Purple Guard,” to the dismay of the Bishop, she resigned her licence as a Priest, but not her Holy Orders. She was put in charge of a parish near Vietnam, and there she started a large maternity home to ensure that new-born girls were not smothered at birth. Her witness to the value of every child, girl and boy, made many friends for Jesus—making friends for Jesus was her mission in life. But also she showed that “It Takes ONE Woman” to change the culture of her community.
From “Memories of Li Tim-Oi” by Canon Christopher Hall, Lambeth Palace, 30 April 2007.
Thanks, Ann.
Where We Eat - Tony Angello's
On Tuesday, Grandpère and I went to dinner with our daughter and son-in-law at Tony Angello's in Lakeview in New Orleans. That's Tony up there between GP and me. He is 80 years old and still cooking. The restaurant does not have a website, but here's a review from Brett Anderson in the Times-Picayune.
Tony Angello's is still the dimly lit residential-looking ranch house where diners are known to order by simply saying "Feed me," the signal that you desire a seemingly never-ending parade of Angello's creations: eggplant Tina, meatball-tender braciola, crab in red gravy, rabbit braised in a lemony tomato sauce. Angello's take on Creole-Italian is idiosyncratic in a city with no shortage of idiosyncratic Creole-Italian restaurants. Many in New Orleans figured the magnitude of the damage coupled with the age of its owner meant Tony Angello's was gone for good. They were wrong.
I can't find a menu online to aid my memory, but the food was delicious. GP and SIL had all-you-can-eat dishes, and even they could not eat it all. Amongst their dishes, which I tasted, were an artichoke salad and a steak dish that were both out of this world and chicken rosemary that was quite good. I had an Italian salad, minestrone, eggplant Tina (ummm, delicious!), and manicotti in a tomato sauce. Only my daughter ordered dessert, a bread pudding, but we all tasted, and it was to die for.
The folks next to us had the rabbit dish mentioned above, and they said it was wonderful. Altogether a satisfying evening. GP said that the restaurant was like a scene from "The Sopranos".
Lakeview was flooded by breaches in the 17th Street Canal in the aftermath of Katrina. The neighborhood is coming back slowly, but I'm quite pleased that Tony Angello's is back and flourishing, and that it is still a favorite. The business was brisk on a week night.
Below are the youngsters.
A Few Simple Rules
Because of recent unpleasantness in the comments, it seems way past time to talk a little about my blogging philosophy . The comments section is part of the lifeblood of Wounded Bird. I love engagement with those who visit my blog. Most comments receive a response, either individual or group, although I miss a few from time to time. I like access to my comments to be easy, but if the unpleasantness continues, that may not be possible.
Wounded Bird is a bit more of a mutual admiration society than I'd like, so I want to make it clear that I encourage disagreement as long as the exchanges in the comments remain respectful and free of personal attacks and name-calling.
I ask you who post anonymously to sign a name at the end of the comment. You don't have to use your real name. Make up a name, or use initials.
If you repeatedly refuse to follow these few simple rules, your comments will be deleted, and if you continue, you will banned. Remember that I have access to the IP number of all commenters, and those who continue to annoy me and my visitors risk having their IP addresses published on the blog.
Comment moderation may be off and on as the situation requires. If moderation is enabled, you will see a note to that effect beneath the comment box.
It's sad that a few spoilers choose to disrupt the blogosphere in this manner, but those of you who engage in this sort of mischief should keep in mind that, although I am an old lady, I am not necessarily an easy mark. I have the makings of a dictator in me. Wounded Bird is my home online, and you must pay me the courtesy of acting here as you would if you visited me in my home.
Wounded Bird is a bit more of a mutual admiration society than I'd like, so I want to make it clear that I encourage disagreement as long as the exchanges in the comments remain respectful and free of personal attacks and name-calling.
I ask you who post anonymously to sign a name at the end of the comment. You don't have to use your real name. Make up a name, or use initials.
If you repeatedly refuse to follow these few simple rules, your comments will be deleted, and if you continue, you will banned. Remember that I have access to the IP number of all commenters, and those who continue to annoy me and my visitors risk having their IP addresses published on the blog.
Comment moderation may be off and on as the situation requires. If moderation is enabled, you will see a note to that effect beneath the comment box.
It's sad that a few spoilers choose to disrupt the blogosphere in this manner, but those of you who engage in this sort of mischief should keep in mind that, although I am an old lady, I am not necessarily an easy mark. I have the makings of a dictator in me. Wounded Bird is my home online, and you must pay me the courtesy of acting here as you would if you visited me in my home.
Friday, January 23, 2009
President Obama On Torture
"I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture," the president said at the State Department. "The message that we are sending around the world," he said as he signed the executive orders in the Oval Office, "is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." "It is precisely our ideals that give us the strength and the moral high ground to be able to effectively deal with the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorist organizations around the world," he added. "We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms."
Excellent. Two and one half days into office, and what change we see already. I don't want to get carried away, but my spirits are greatly lifted. We can fight terrorism, and we can do it in a manner that does not bring shame upon us. In the past 8 years, I've been shamed enough by the powers in my country to last a lifetime longer than mine.
H/T to Juan Cole.
Excellent. Two and one half days into office, and what change we see already. I don't want to get carried away, but my spirits are greatly lifted. We can fight terrorism, and we can do it in a manner that does not bring shame upon us. In the past 8 years, I've been shamed enough by the powers in my country to last a lifetime longer than mine.
H/T to Juan Cole.
Oh Happy Day!
My two grandchildren, a 13 year old girl and an 8 year old boy, are out of school today because of parent-teacher conferences. Guess where they are. Right. Here at my house. Hot wheel tracks are all over my kitchen counter and floor. "Mimi, look! Mimi, watch!" I'm called to watch one hot wheel wreck and catastrophe after another. At the moment, a disagreement seems to be developing about how to arrange the hot wheel tracks. Will it escalate into a major argument? Suspense! We shall see.
My granddaughter went to the orthopedist today for a check on whether her broken arm is healing properly. It is, and, in two and one half weeks, she will have her splint removed from her arm and a smaller splint applied. She has not needed a plaster cast, because her arm is healing well as is, with what was to be a temporary splint.
I'm assigned to the laptop computer, because the little, and not so little, people take over the desktop periodically. Blogging may be light.
My granddaughter went to the orthopedist today for a check on whether her broken arm is healing properly. It is, and, in two and one half weeks, she will have her splint removed from her arm and a smaller splint applied. She has not needed a plaster cast, because her arm is healing well as is, with what was to be a temporary splint.
I'm assigned to the laptop computer, because the little, and not so little, people take over the desktop periodically. Blogging may be light.
What Is The World Coming To?
From Andy Borowitz at The Huffington Post:
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
....
The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.
Click the link and read the rest.
Thanks to Ann.
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
....
The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.
Click the link and read the rest.
Thanks to Ann.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
On Guantanamo From One Who Was There
Blogger Arkansas Hillbilly said...
Mimi,
I for one am glad the President is closing GTMO. I was there when we opened it (part of the fleet hospital treating the wounds of the detainees), and I can tell you that it was never meant to go on this long. We knew that 95% of them were just some poor schmucks who were given weapons and told to fight, but we didn't know which ones, and so many of them were sick and wounded and needed help. I remember one guy we brought back from the brink of death from TB in particular, and the amputations that had to be done to save alot of them. My unit did a lot of good at the time.
Some of those guys are bad men. When he first arrived, David Hicks swore he would "kill an American before I leave". That's the scary part to me. I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you for your words, Arkansas Hillbilly.
Mimi,
I for one am glad the President is closing GTMO. I was there when we opened it (part of the fleet hospital treating the wounds of the detainees), and I can tell you that it was never meant to go on this long. We knew that 95% of them were just some poor schmucks who were given weapons and told to fight, but we didn't know which ones, and so many of them were sick and wounded and needed help. I remember one guy we brought back from the brink of death from TB in particular, and the amputations that had to be done to save alot of them. My unit did a lot of good at the time.
Some of those guys are bad men. When he first arrived, David Hicks swore he would "kill an American before I leave". That's the scary part to me. I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you for your words, Arkansas Hillbilly.
Comments Moderation Is Back On
I'm not putting up with the crap comments that are coming in, and I am the decider about what is crap. If folks want to disagree with sensible arguments, well and good, but I'm not going to spend my time rebutting nonsense, nor will I allow the nonsense to clutter up my comments.
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