tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post3011842733809937980..comments2024-03-08T07:09:46.527-07:00Comments on Pro Libertate: The Military Commission and the "Monster" Washington MadeWilliam N. Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-6551716062458736332007-04-01T08:59:00.000-06:002007-04-01T08:59:00.000-06:00Speaking of show trials! NPR reported yesterday t...Speaking of show trials! NPR reported yesterday that the plea agreement had been reached on Monday, days before the "trial" began. <BR/><BR/>The jury which deliberated on the sentence did not even know the plea agreement had been reached. <BR/><BR/>Worse still, they were not allowed to view the evidence against Mr. Hicks, and a statement admitted into evidence against him was unsworn. <BR/><BR/>David Hicks was supposed to be one of the worst of the worst terrorists at Guantanamo. However, the charges which were leveled at him in public were dropped against him at trial:<BR/> <BR/>that he was willing to go on a suicide mission as a martyr; <BR/>that he worked with Richard Reid the shoe bomber; that he worked with, and was an associate of, John Walker Lindh; and that he praised the attack on 9/11.<BR/><BR/><BR/>In effect, the government backed away from its most serious charges. According to other reports, the prosecutor didn't even know the plea agreement had been reached! <BR/> <BR/>Show trials are currently being held here, but they are being run by the Bush administration. The gag order for Mr. Hicks is suspiciously timed to end after Australia's elections. <BR/> <BR/>Christian Against Bush<BR/>Brooklyn, NYAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-63160859426064702902007-04-01T02:37:00.000-06:002007-04-01T02:37:00.000-06:00Oh my, how insightful minds think so much alike on...Oh my, how insightful minds think so much alike on so many levels, Will. They sing from the same sheet of music, perhaps only in a different key ;). And I don't mean that only referencing particular authors I have in mind necessarily either, but for most of the commenters here as well I suspect.<BR/><BR/>Just as you are "singing" here, but in a different key, that witty Südafrikanerin, Ilana Mercer, is whistlin' the <A HREF="http://www.ilanamercer.com/MugabeMbekiMalikiTheyreOurBoys.htm" REL="nofollow">same tune</A>. I couldn't agree more.<BR/><BR/>She even makes particular mention of the former Rhodesia - which had a relatively high life-expectancy rate, low unemployment, and was self-sufficient in food production - and its prime minister Ian Smith, who was viciously attacked by the West from 1965 until he stepped down in 1980. Then, Mugabe, a dear African comrade to the West’s political class, stepped up to the plate and the all-too-predictable outcome we see today was the result. No surprise there.<BR/><BR/>Similar events predictably metastasized in South Africa almost 15 years later, although a bit more gradually, when Mandela stepped up. Now, of course, the misery perpetrated by government there would be self-evident to even the basest brainless wonder in the American street and accelerating now under the current tribal mob boss, Thabo Mbeki. Thus, that's why you NEVER see or hear about South Africa in the media anymore. Apartheid is gone, the blacks have "f-r-e-e-d-o-m!" now, so what's to report? Again, no surprise there.<BR/><BR/>Sometimes I think these lapdog media marionettes should be lynched...sigh. My dark side revealing itself there :(.<BR/><BR/>I even touched on these points in a <A HREF="http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2006/11/review-of-news-november-22.html#c116424605370270776" REL="nofollow">past thread</A>, although in a different context.<BR/> <BR/>You know Will, I look at some folk in the world and conclude that they cannot handle real, responsible (bridled) freedom like we have (had!) because they simply don't have the cultural foundation to seed it properly. So, they either have to be assisted along and talked to "softly," but always have your big stick handy when necessary. The alternative, of course, is that a bonafide dictator will do it his way, which they're <I>accustomed</I> to, of course, and these strongmen dispense with the "talking softly" altogether. The former would be my description of Rhodesia and South Africa under the era of white rule. The latter is the status quo.<BR/><BR/>The Arabs aggregately (whether they are Iraqi, Egyptian, Syrian, makes no difference. They're still Arabs) are similar in that they've never known in any sense of the word, real freedom like we have (had!), precisely because their culture had no foundation conducive to seeding it, let alone keeping it! So it was that after the fall of Saddam Hussein (another of our comrades originally) and I saw the Iraqis walking down a Baghdad street with swords and scimitars cuttin' on their bald heads and bloodying themselves while chanting happily, I immediately said to myself, "They require a strongman to keep them quasi-civilized for goodness sake!" Gee, was that not obvious to the educated political class?? Of course, but they wanted a NEW strongman in there... They had grown tired of Saddam. <BR/><BR/>A government consisting of a unilateral strongman, or some sort of oligarchy, is naturally required to keep a d-i-v-e-r-s-e farrago of folk under control and at least to maintain a pseudo-peace.<BR/><BR/>When a news journalist at the time asked one of the participants about the revelry (I'd have said "savagery," more apropos IMO), the unwitting soul said in essence that Saddam didn't allow us to do "ceremonies" like this! So we are doing it, now that we're "f-r-e-e!" (Yes, the "scare" quotes are all mine.)<BR/><BR/>“F-r-e-e-d-o-m!” in the abstract is meaningless conjecture and psychobabble without the proper foundation on which it’s planted and which is required to secure “the blessings of liberty” to themselves and their respective posterity.dixiedoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09845646940134894119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-43677524668795864652007-03-31T21:46:00.000-06:002007-03-31T21:46:00.000-06:00Fred, that particular file cabinet is roughly the ...Fred, that particular file cabinet is roughly the size of ... oh, the UN HQ Building, appropriately enough. <BR/><BR/>I'm very weary of finding out how the people "protecting" us from dictators, terrorists, and assorted thugs are the same people who CREATED those same dictators, terrorists, and thugs.William N. Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-68153828906573791572007-03-29T06:45:00.000-06:002007-03-29T06:45:00.000-06:00"He was captured by the Northern Alliance outside ..."He was captured by the Northern Alliance outside Kandahar in December 2001, and turned over to US custody."<BR/><BR/>Some in D.C. probably cheered upon receiving news of his capture. Then it hit them: "We made this guy. Where we gonna dump him? Hey, Joe! Pull the files on the other guys we created and caught. It's in the file cabinet behind the gigantic "Best Enemy Money Can Buy" file".Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00447111416321992256noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-91158465059641983282007-03-28T18:42:00.000-06:002007-03-28T18:42:00.000-06:00Will,It occurred to me that this guy might know so...Will,<BR/><BR/>It occurred to me that this guy might know something that the current administration wants to keep under wraps...or maybe he is being made an example of what might happen to one who dares to expose some unsavory order or action of the said administration.Captain Kirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05111692386028869573noreply@blogger.com