Back

Sorry for the break. Things happen.

Anyway, there's too much material from recent weeks for me to comprehensively cover in the amount of time at my disposal.

One of the hallmarks of this blog over the years has been my willingness to retrace my steps, even if I've had to go on a hiatus. I haven't been able to do that of late, so I hope and trust you've been paying attention to other outlets that bother to document what's going on. Most of them, as usual, are found on the right sidebar.

Trudging on, here are some highlights from recent weeks. I should be able to keep up with things again, now that I'm back in front of a computer consistently.

* As much as certain people would love for the torture stuff to be swept back under the rug, particularly with Abu Ghraib back in the news, Dahr Jamail insists on dragging it out into the open. As he puts it, "Abu Ghraib was -- and remains -- only a symptom of a much deeper problem."

* Also on the torture/gulag front, see a break down of Jane Mayer's recent New Yorker article, along with analysis of recent reports on Gitmo from UNCHR, National Journal, and two Seton Hall law professors. Meanwhile, with all the attention focused on the Cuban detention facility, the NY Times reports that the US military "has quietly expanded another, less-visible prison in Afghanistan, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in more primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges." At Bagram, obviously.

* Turns out the US has already cited exemption from McCain's torture bill. That took, what, three months? Plus: Remember Rendition? A US court recently threw out Maher Arar's case. American "justice" prevails, once again.

* A mess in Iraq? Really? Where?

* The implicit argument in much of the hand-wringing over a civil war in Iraq seems to be that Iraqis just weren't ready for democracy, and such a benevolent force hasn't been able to take root because of ancient, parochial tribalisms. Funny how that's probably a complete inversion of what's really happened, as Martin Sieff points out.

* If you're looking for a different causal factor for civil war, try this on. The chain of events is, at the least, suspicious.

* This poll will hopefully cause some cognitive dissonance amongst the "support the troops by supporting the war" crowd.

* Justin Raimondo is on his "war for Israel" kick again. This time he's speaking about Iran, of course, after noting this piece of news from the Times of London.

* This NY Times article, which essentially piggybacks off an important Washington Post piece from last August, boils down thusly: assuming an intention to build a bomb, Iran is very far away from doing just that. The best estimate is about ten years; those who suggest a "few" months or years are probably liars and propagandists. Oh, and you'd think this piece of news would warrant attention in the American media, wouldn't you?

* Jim Lobe and Joseph Cirincione analyze Bush's nuclear deal with India. It doesn't get more chutzpahy than this: giving the nuclear keys to India, in violation of the NPT, all the while trying to lecture (if not bludgeon) Iran on the dangers of pursuing its own program. Writes Cirincione, "The lesson Iran is likely to draw is simple: if you hold out long enough, the Americans will cave. All this talk about violating treaties, they will reason, is just smoke. When the Americans think you are important enough, they will break the rules to accommodate you."

* Tyrannical regimes seem to have a penchant for this: "The CIA and other federal agencies have secretly reclassified over 55,000 pages of records taken from the open shelves at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), according to a report published today on the World Wide Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Matthew Aid, author of the report and a visiting fellow at the Archive, discovered this secret program through his wide-ranging research in intelligence, military, and diplomatic records at NARA and found that the CIA and military agencies have reviewed millions of pages at an unknown cost to taxpayers in order to sequester documents from collections that had been open for years."

* Rachel Corrie's story: not fit for an American audience, apparently.

* Have I ever told you how much I respect Amira Hass? Here are three reasons why.

* "The Pat Tillman case is back in the news, with the Army’s belated announcement that it is launching a criminal probe into the 'friendly fire' killing of the former pro football star in Afghanistan in April 2004," writes Greg Mitchell. "It’s a long way, indeed, since those days immediately after the tragic incident when Tillman's death was promoted by the Pentagon as a symbol of American goodness in the war on terrorists." Alas, Mitchell adds, "we should not forget that the military not only lied to Tillman’s friends and family about the episode, but also -- in the tradition of the Jessica Lynch affair -- to the press."

* Wow. What a surprise. TIA wasn't killed -- just rebranded.

* NASA whistleblower Jim Hansen says we're reaching another "tipping point" on global warming, with further evidence recently discovered in both Greenland and Antarctica.

* Very good essay: "The Health Care Crisis and What to Do About It." After laying out their case, authors Paul Krugman and Robin Wells conclude, "So what will really happen to American health care? Many people in this field believe that in the end America will end up with national health insurance, and perhaps with a lot of direct government provision of health care, simply because nothing else works. But things may have to get much worse before reality can break through the combination of powerful interest groups and free-market ideology."

* Lots of poor people in the US. Thank heavens we do a good job obscuring the reality.