Rape, arbitration, and Republicans

An amendment by Senator Franken to stop funding for defense contractors who mandate arbitration for certain things (like sexual assault) passed the Senate 68-30. Democrats have started to use the fact that 30 Republicans voted against a proposal to rectify a situation where a woman gang raped and then imprisoned in a metal container was [...]

Honduras, Iran, and Iraq

A few updates:

The situation in Honduras is still confused with some in the government still insisting that it was not a coup:

Roberto Micheletti, the veteran congressional leader who was sworn in by his fellow lawmakers on Sunday to replace Mr. Zelaya, seemed to plead with the world to understand that Mr. Zelaya’s arrest by the army [...]

Now Obama is against release of photos

President Obama is now against the release of photos that show the abuse of prisoners:

President Obama declared yesterday that he would try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing US troops abusing prisoners, abruptly reversing his position out of concern the pictures would “further inflame anti-American opinion” and endanger American forces in Iraq and [...]

More on torture

Via Tom Tomorrow, Mark Danner has two long reports on torture based on the Red Cross’ report. Together they make it obvious that there was torture (and show how simple things become torture: standing, sitting, being in a box, …) and how the Bush administration used the debate on torture to to turn the discussion [...]

Why did the US torture?

As more information comes out, it becomes more and more difficult to know why the Bush administration turned to torture. This op-ed by an FBI interrogator notes that they got information without using torture:
It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several C.I.A. officers [...]

They’re Our Terrorists

This shows what the Bush administration is about:
Iraqi officials say they intend to expel members of an Iranian exile group living in a camp north of Baghdad that is protected by the U.S. military. The expulsion, which the Shiite-led government has long sought, is expected to become feasible once the U.N. mandate that regulates the [...]

Interrogator Says Torture Is Counterproductive

Matthew Alexander, who led an interrogations team in Iraq, says that many of the methods of interrogation in Iraq were flawed and ineffective, specifically this was true for torture. How did he conduct interrogations?
I taught the members of my unit a new methodology — one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and [...]

Non-story: Suskind Says Bush Admin Lied To Attack Iraq

I know I should be skeptical about this:
In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD — as Habbush had foretold — the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to Saddam saying that Atta trained in [...]

Bush: Anthrax From Al Qaeda or Iraq

The Bush administration pushed the Al Qaeda link for the anthrax attack even after the FBI told them there wasn’t one:
On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, “There may be some possible link” to Bin Laden, adding, “I wouldn’t put it past him.” Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden’s henchmen were trained “how to [...]

Abu Ghraib and the Congo, Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad

It’s always interesting to follow links and ideas to see where they lead. I started here where Philip Gourevitch talks about his book about torture and Abu Ghraib, noticing that Mark Twain had noticed 100 years ago that photographs could make the difference when talking about atrocities.
Thus linking Iraq and the Congo under King Leopold II [...]

Democracy?

Here are a few bits from the democracy wars:

the newly elected assembly of Nepal has declared the country a republic and abolished the monarchy. This, maybe, is the end of a weird terrible story:

But while the end of Nepal’s royal dynasty may have come in a peaceful vote, the stage for the monarchy’s demise was [...]

Bush and Iraq

Is President Bush really this stupid:
Bush said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s crackdown in Basra against Shi’ite militias vying for control of the oil-rich region is a positive milestone in the birth of a democratic nation. The Iraqi prime minister’s decision to move against enemy elements in Basra shows “evenhanded justice” and the Iraqi government’s willingness [...]

World Stuff

Here are some things (not all bad news):

Bhutan held its first elections, with more than 240,000 of the country’s 700,000 people voting. The article doesn’t mention a dress code and, given the numbers, it doesn’t seem only college graduates could vote as I noticed here (although only college graduates could run–only 2% of the people are). [...]

McCain: Sunni, Shiite, One Of Those

Isn’t McCain supposed to be experienced in foreign policy? He sounds a little like Huckabee here:
Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives “taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.”
Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it [...]

KBR

Let’s see, KBR is a company that allowed an atmosphere that allowed sexual harassmentment and rape, its employees in Iraq are immune from prosecution, employees that were raped will only be able to go through arbitration (by a firm hired by KBR), and now the Boston Globe has an article about how they don’t pay [...]

No Recourse

Via Kevin Drum, somehow I had missed this judgment:
A mother of five who says she was sexually harassed and assaulted while working for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq is headed for a secretive arbitration process rather than being able to present her case in open court.
A judge in Texas has ruled that Tracy Barker’s case will be [...]

Israel, Palestine, and Turkey

Turkey has pulled out of Iraq for now, which is good, but the battles will continue.
The situation in Gaza has taken a turn for the worse as Hamas has increased its missile attacks (including longer range ones) and now Israel has made a major strike into Gaza killing at least 54 (and at least two Israeli [...]

Kenya and Turkey

Ok, now it seems that it might get better in Kenya with the signing of an agreement for power sharing between the main rivals. We will still have to wait and see if the agreement can work in practice, but it looks like all parties are ok with this and that should go a long way.

I’m sure [...]

Good and Bad In Iraq

Three somewhat controversial bills have been passed by the Iraqi legislature:
The three laws are the 2008 budget, a law outlining the scope of provincial powers — a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state — and an amnesty that will cover thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails, including thousands of Sunnis, [...]

Bush: It’s Not a Treaty Because I Say It’s Not

The Bush administration has been working up an agreement with Iraq to keep US troops there past the end of the year. Despite the fact that the agreement talks about security guarantees, which have never been made without a treaty:
 After World War II, for example – when the United States gave security commitments to Japan, [...]