unwelcome

[Ivo Skoric]

"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of 
mass destruction [as justification for invading Iraq] because it was 
the one reason everyone could agree on."
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, May 28, 2003

This sounds like a prosecutor settling in a plea bargain on a charge 
that the defense can agree on. It doesn't sound like being the truth, 
does it? And is it?

Yet, under the auspices of the theory that Iraq's WMD-s were the 
main reason fof the 'liberation', not just there for bureaucratic 
expediency, and since no other viable justification was supplied 
before or after the invasion, one can only be appaled to learn that 
the US troops, in their victorious march on Bhagdad, BY-PASSED 
the nuclear facility at Tuwaitha.

While Padilla is held incomunicado at military prison, and, 
probably, interrogated (or worse) about his alleged intentions to 
build a "dirty bomb", ordinary Iraqi citizens emptied dozens of 
barrels of nuclear waste [in order to use the barrels for carrying 
water, after their village was left without running water, due to US 
invasion] at the unguarded Tuwaitha site, while the US tanks were 
elsewhere.

Isn't this an eggregious lack of good judgement on part of the US? 
Not only that hundreds of Iraqis will die of exposure to radioactive 
waste, but the same could indeed be used to produce a 'dirty 
bomb' - i.e. it was the proclaimed reason of why Americans were 
there, yet they did not do anything to prevent the looting. Amazing. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/international/worldspecial/08IR
AQ.html?pagewanted=1&th

-/-
More fantastic insensitivity from the US officials - and this is not 
from Bush Junior administration:
Way back in 1988, on the 3rd of July, the U.S.S. Vincennes, a 
missile cruiser stationed in the Persian Gulf, accidentally shot 
down an Iranian airliner and killed 290 civilian passengers. George 
Bush the First, who was at the time on his presidential campaign, 
was asked to comment on the incident. He said quite subtly, "I will 
never apologize for the United States. I don't care what the facts 
are."

-/-

Absolutely hillarious shouting match errupted between Fox's 
O'Reilly and SNL's Al Franken at the Book Expo in LA:

http://www.booktv.org/misc/BookExpo_053103.asp

Book & Author Luncheon
* Watch 1 hr. 29 mins. 
Al Franken, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and 
Balanced Look at the Right" (Al put O'Reilly's picture on the cover 
of that book)
* Molly Ivins, "Bushwhacked"
* Bill O'Reilly, "Who's Looking Out for You?"
* Pat Schroeder, Assn. of American Publishers, President & CEO - 
Moderator Interviews & Call-Ins

-/-
On the home front, the US is becoming less and less welcoming to 
its immigrants. Even the internal government reports now openly 
recognize that.

INTERNAL REPORT BLASTS DETENTIONS

On June 2 the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the internal
oversight unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), released its long-
anticipated report on the detention of immigrants following the terror
attacks of Sept. 11, 2003. The 239-page report by Inspector 
General Glenn A. Fine addresses the government's detention of 
762 immigrants--most of Arab or South Asian descent--during the 
terrorism probe. None of the 762 were charged with terrorism-
related crimes, yet many suffered physical abuse, were kept from 
contacting lawyers and family members, and languished in federal 
detention for months under an official "no bond policy." About 515 
of them were eventually deported.

The OIG report implicates high-ranking political appointees and 
raises serious legal liability questions, according to the American 
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Its release was reportedly delayed for 
almost a year because of ongoing negotiations with the Attorney 
General's office over who would shoulder blame for the abuses, the 
ACLU says. [Washington Post 6/3/03; ACLU Press Release 
6/2/03]

The inquiry focused on two facilities where most of the detainees 
were concentrated: the federal Metropolitan Detention Center 
(MDC) in Brooklyn and Passaic County jail in Paterson, New 
Jersey. At MDC, some detainees were held for months in cells 
illuminated 24 hours a day and were escorted in handcuffs, leg 
irons and waist chains. The OIG report found detainees had 
credible claims of having been slammed into walls and taunted by
guards. Prosecutors declined to press criminal charges against 
any guards, citing lack of evidence, although the OIG is continuing 
to investigate and some individuals could face administrative 
sanctions. The report said investigations were hampered by the 
destruction of potential evidence--hundreds of hours of videotape 
from MDC's Special Housing Unit--which, according to Fine, 
appeared to have been destroyed as part of a "general policy" to 
clear up space. "There's no indication they were
trying to cover anything up," Fine said. [WP 6/2/03, 6/3/03]

The report is expected to provide further fuel for a wave of lawsuits 
by former detainees. A May 30 article in Time magazine reports 
that some DOJ staffers have been advised to hire lawyers to defend 
them against such suits. Those most likely to seek individual 
counsel, says Time, include DOJ Criminal Division head Michael 
Chertoff, former assistant attorney general Viet Dinh and former 
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
chief James Ziglar. [Time 5/30/03]

The report said Ziglar expressed concerns in October and 
November 2001 to senior FBI officials and a top aide to US 
Attorney General John Ashcroft that the detainee process was not 
being managed properly. The report also cites a late-September 
2001 memo from a DOJ attorney expressing concerns that the 
"overwhelming majority" of people being detained were "simple
immigration violators...and had no connection to the terrorism
investigation." [Los Angeles Times 6/3/03]

"We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to 
protect the American public from further terrorist attacks," said 
DOJ spokesperson Barbara Comstock on June 2, responding to 
the report's release. [WP 6/3/03] "Those detained were illegal 
aliens," she said in a prepared statement. "They were all charged 
with criminal violations or civil violations of federal immigration law," 
Comstock continued. "Detention of illegal aliens is lawful. We 
detained illegal aliens until it was determined they were not involved 
in terrorist activity, did not have relevant knowledge of terrorist 
activity, or it was determined that their removal was appropriate." 
[LAT 6/3/03]

On June 5, in five hours of testimony before the House Judiciary
Committee, Ashcroft reiterated that his department's policy--"for 
which we do not apologize"--is to hold "illegal aliens" without 
access to bail or bond until they can be cleared of terrorist 
activities, and then deported. Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-VA) asked 
whether Ashcroft planned to further investigate any of the 
allegations included in the report about abuses by
DOJ employees; Ashcroft responded that he had "no plan at this 
time" to do so. Ashcroft said investigations by the DOJ's civil rights 
division are pending in four of the 18 detainee abuse cases 
identified by the inspector general; there was not enough evidence 
to bring criminal charges in the other 14 cases. [New York Times 
6/5/03 (online version), 6/6/03; WP
6/6/03]