Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (148867)	10/24/2004 3:05:44 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

Yes, Nadine, and let's not forget how your heroes in W-land treated the bin Laden threat before 9/11. Somehow, oddly, it seems they were obsessed with Iraq then, too. I'm sure it's all somebody else's fault, though. Clarke sharply whacks Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as the leader of the Get Saddam squad. When the White House finally did convene a top-level meeting to discuss terrorism, in April 2001, Wolfowitz rebuffed Clarke's effort to focus on Al Qaeda. According to Clarke, Wolfowitz said, "Who cares about a little terrorist in Afghanistan?" The real threat, Wolfowitz insisted, was state-sponsored terrorism orchestrated by Saddam. In the meeting, says Clarke, Wolfowitz cited the writings of Laurie Mylroie, a controversial academic who had written a book advancing an elaborate conspiracy theory that Saddam was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Clarke says he tried to refute Wolfowitz. "We've investigated that five ways to Friday, and nobody [in the government] believes that," Clarke recalls saying. "It was Al Qaeda. It wasn't Saddam." A spokesman for Wolfowitz described Clarke's account as a "fabrication." Wolfowitz always regarded Al Qaeda as "a major threat," said this official. If the Bush administration was sounding the alarm about Al Qaeda in its first few months in office, the national-security bureaucracy was not listening. At the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft downgraded terrorism as a priority, choosing to place more emphasis on drug trafficking and gun violence. That summer, a federal judge severely chastised the FBI for improperly seeking permission to wiretap terrorists; as a result, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called "Catcher's Mitt" to monitor Qaeda suspects in the United States. The CIA and Air Force were caught up in an endless wrangle over who would arm and fly the Predator spy plane (and pay for it, as well as take responsibility for shooting at terrorist targets). (newsweek, 3/31/04, via 64.233.167.104 )

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (148867)	10/24/2004 3:28:55 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Respond to of 281500

My argument is that the administration is playing fast and loose with important principles upon which western democracies are founded. Liberty as a concept is an important part of the constitution. When the military's own lawyers are having trouble with the type of "justice" being served, you can bet there are reasons for us all to be concerned. 9/11 was an act of war, declared by OBL against the US. Now, how do you treat combatants who will never follow the Geneva conventions, that is the question? We have not only imprisoned combatants but also "suspects" based on intelligence. Only 4 charges in three years. Dozens and dozens let go after months or years in prison, presumably because no evidence could be found, and in some cases, surely because those imprisoned were actually innocent. Anyway, its not just lowly conservative civilians like me who are concerned about the erosion of liberty and lack of respect for international convention. ------- Senators concerned about report CIA secretly removed detainees from Iraq 10/24/2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - Leading senators expressed concern Sunday about a report that the CIA has secretly moved as many as a dozen unidentified prisoners out of Iraq in the last six months, a possible violation of international treaties. Senator John McCain said interrogations can help extract crucial information from detainees on plans for attacks against Americans. But international law, including the Geneva Convention, must be followed, he said. "These conventions and these rules are in place for a reason because you get on a slippery slope and you don't know where to get off," McCain, an Arizon Republican, told ABC's This Week. "The thing that separates us from the enemy is our respect for human rights," he said. cnews.canoe.ca -- AND -- October 20, 2004 -- Look at our prisoner of war policy now BY PETER MAGUIRE - NEWSDAY Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of the few combat veterans in the Bush administration, warned that the president's decision to shirk our long-standing commitment to the Geneva Conventions would "reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice." Powell correctly predicted the "high cost in terms of negative international reaction" that would have "immediate adverse consequences for our foreign policy." newsday.com