Back In the USSA

As the Anarchist Sci-Fi writer Mack Reynolds used to posit in many of his novels the difference between the KGB and the CIA was the difference between the Military Industrial Complex in America and the Military Industrial Complex in the USSR.

Today that difference has all but disappeared. As old enemies now become clients in the privatized world of secret rendition. Secret CIA jails hosted by Poland, Romania: watchdog

See:

Lagrange 5


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Free Kadhar

The 'liberal humanist' government of Stephen Harper denounces China for holding a Canadian citizen incommunicado, without access by Canadian Embassy staff, for the use of torture, forced confession, illegal arrest and show trial. His crime is to be a Muslim who is accused of terrorism.

Yet when the US of A does it well that's okay.

US can deal with terror suspects without flouting its own laws

The facade of due process and respect for international law that United States President George W. Bush has tried to attach to the treatment of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay slipped again this week.

The decision by a military judge to dismiss all charges against Omar Khadr will be a slight embarrassment for the Bush administration, since it was based on what appears to be a flaw in the law written specifically to prosecute prisoners held on the American base in Cuba. But it will make little difference to Khadr, at least in the short term. The 20-year-old Canadian has been held for the past five years in Guantanamo after being captured in Afghanistan where, at the age of 15, he allegedly killed an American soldier and wounded another with a grenade.

Before Khadr's trial began this week, a Bush administration spokesman made it clear that even if he were to be acquitted by the military tribunal, he would most likely continue to be held as enemy combatant for as long as the war on terror goes on.

In this case, although he was captured in combat in a country that had been invaded by the United States and its allies, Khadr was not considered to be a prisoner of war. Nor was he arrested for murder under either the laws of Afghanistan, where the death occurred, or the U.S.

Instead the administration made up its own rules, which allow prisoners to held indefinitely without charge, to be tortured -- humanely, of course --to be shipped around the world and to be denied basic legal protections given to the worst criminals in the U.S.

The Canadian Government,regardless of it's political ideology, is expected to defend it's citizens or the party in power has no right to govern if it fails it's citizens.

In this case the whole of Parliament, all the parties that make up the State, have failed to do their duty to defend an underage Canadian citizen who has been illegally confined by the Americans. No questions were raised in the House of Commons this week by any opposition party. And while their silence was deafening that of the Government roared disinterest.

While it is easy to see why Canadian politicians and officials don't want to touch the Khadr case with a barge pole, their silence has been seen by some as an unconscionable endorsement of an increasingly suspect U.S. policy.

This is particularly the case considering the very public complaints that have come from Canadian officials -- including the prime minister -- about China's treatment of terrorist suspect Huseyin Celil, a Canadian-Chinese citizen arrested while he was travelling in Asia on a Canadian passport.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right to take China to task over the Celil case. But he should have been just as forceful with the American government on Khadr.

Harper ignores citizen's right to due process

Canada still mute as Guantanamo circus continues

It is true that Khadr is no model citizen, coming from a family whose father raised his children to be warriors for jihad.

It is also true that everyone, no matter their guilt or innocence, deserves a fair hearing in a legitimate court of due process.

When that fails to occur for a Canadian citizen in a foreign land, it is imperative that the Canadian government stand up for that citizen's right to a proper trial.

Stephen Harper understands this, repeatedly criticizing China for its shady handling of Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil, recently sentenced in secret to life in prison on questionable terrorism-related charges.

Harper carries a much different line on Khadr. Not wanting to offend his war-on-terror pal George W. Bush, Harper and his government -- much like the previous Liberal regime -- remains silent on the Khadr matter.

The opposition parties aren't much better, apparently fearing that support for Khadr's right to a fair trial may be portrayed as being "soft of terrorism."

Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP MP Joe Comartin briefly broke the silence this week by demanding the Harper regime get more involved in Khadr's file.

Here is a Law and Order government that refuses to defend it's own citizens and one who is 'underage', a mere child when he was kidnapped by the U.S. Government.

There we have it the Americans have imprisoned a Canadian underage child, kidnapping him, denying him the right to a fair trial,the very basis of common law broken, violated. Now one would think that those who profess to uphold moral virtues as politics would publicly abhor these actions.

Especially our Conservative Government which has made an issue out of both increasing the age of consent from 14 to 16 and to decreasing the age for which felonious crimes can be charged. They are so concerned with the rights of children unless of course it is Omar Kadhar.

Instead they acquiesce to the American State, and it's right post 9/11, to become a fascist state.

Report: 39 Secretly Imprisoned by US

An alliance of human rights groups has determined the U.S. is secretly detaining 39 terror suspects. Names of the so-called "ghost detainees" were published in a report released Thursday.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups, agreed on the list which was compiled from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

"What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Factbox: secret CIA prisons in Europe

Bush to arrive in Rome during 'CIA rendition' trial

SEE:

State Sponsored Terrorism

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Bush Beer

There was a very funny video, unintentionally funny, on BBC of G8 leaders relaxing, having a beer. At the table are Prodi, Merkel, Blair and George Bush.



Having not had a beer in a long time, and forgetting that real beer, that is any beer other than American brands, actually has head and foams, George pours himself a glass and it overflows all over the table and onto his lap much to his surprise. The following day he absented himself in the AM with the traditional morning sickness of a heavy night of carousing.

REFORMED boozer George W Bush knocks back a large glass of lager at the G8 summit - sparking fears that he has fallen off the wagon.

Now-teetotal Dubya, who admitted during his first presidential campaign that he used to drink far too much, downed the beer while taking a break with Tony Blair, German president Angela Merkel and the Italian prime minister Romano Prodi.

And he seemed to be getting quite jolly during their get together - throwing back his head and roaring with laughter during their chat.

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President Bush is "unwell".

White House staff say they're not sure whether it's something he ate or a stomach virus.

As to suspicions that the was doing a "Boris Yeltsin" - US officials insist that was a non alcoholic beer he was seen drinking last night.

I wonder if he was drinking a Bush Beer?

Bush

Brewery: Dubuisson

Category: An amber beer/barley wine

Taste: perfume like flavour with a strong whisky like after glow..

Strength: 12.0%.

Serve: cooled

My first encounter with this beer was at the beautiful Ciro bar in the centre of Brussels, I was discussing the merits of Belgium beer with a local and explained how I disliked the strong tasting trappist beers. The local said he understood so he would order something special for me, along came a beer called Bush! Beware this little beer is a wolf in sheeps clothing, it may taste only mildly alcoholic but it packs the punch of a sledgehammer.

Of course being amongst his equals, it is easier to converse and imbibe in mutual conviviality than if one has to actually meet the common folks, the salt of the earth, the American voter.

Long-Awaited Beer With Bush Really Awkward, Voter Reports

Although respondents to a Pew poll taken prior to the 2004 presidential election characterized Bush as "the candidate they'd most like to sit down and have a beer with," Chris Reinard lived the hypothetical scenario Sunday afternoon, and characterized it as "really uncomfortable and awkward."

Chris Reinard and President Bush try to think of something to talk about.

Reinard, a father of four who supported Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, said sharing a beer with the president at the Switchyard Tap gave him "an uneasy feeling."

"I thought he'd be great," Reinard said. "But when I actually met him, I felt real put off."

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