It Ain't Skateboarding!

Lately there has been a lot of talk about waterboarding. This is a little technique that the CIA has reportedly used in the past to interrogate people who are suspected of having knowledge that could save American lives in the "War on Terror." In the past few weeks we have had a lot of discussion on the matter for a couple of reasons. First we had the Senate Confirmation Hearings of Michael Mukasey. Senators were upset when Mukasey refused to say whether he believed waterboarding was in fact torture. Then we have the upcoming Presidential elections. On the Republican side you have John McCain, the only current presidential candidate who has actually been tortured, defining the practice as such, and then calling for the US to stand against it, condemn it, and move on. Most of the other candidates have tried to stay out of the discussion, lamely claiming to not have an opinion, or desiring to know more facts. As most of you know, I lean to the left of the political ledger. I don't think you should be president if you cannot, in this day and age, make a decision about whether waterboarding is torture. I may not like your decision, but c'mon, you've got to have an opinion. Is McCain the only GOP candidate willing to stand up for what he believes? But lest it seem as if I am being harsh on the Republicans, allow me to cite a report that has recently surfaced. I am not sure how many of you know the names Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, and Jay Rockefeller. They are three leading Democrats and frequent critics of the Iraq war, torture, overseas CIA detention centers, and who knows what else. The reason I bring these names up is because while they have been publicly hammering the Bush Administration on the waterboarding issue, we now know they were aware of it and even pushed for harsher tactics in the days after 9/11. This is the kind of stuff the turns people off in regards to politics. The GOP will not speak out against the practice for fear of alienating their political supporters on the right who believe the US gov't could never do something wrong and that the ends justifies the means if the means are what you want. The Dems, hammer away at Bush publicly, totally for the benefit of their supporters who belive Bush is Satan incarnate, and yet in private, to his face, they agree with him. This stuff is incredible. Is it any wonder participation in the electoral process is down? The Mission Update. Bob Sheer from Truthdig.com has weighed in on this. His perspective is important because Scheer is known for his decidedly liberal viewpoint. In the second half of his article, he works through the Pelosi issue and finally calls on her to answer the "What did you know and when did you know it" question. Astounding.

A Double Standard?

"Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." Those are the words of President George Bush in September 2001 in what I believe was the finest speech of his political career. This was when he laid out the rational that became our justification for attacking Afghanistan for harboring Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Unfortunately sometimes the law of unexpected consequences kicks in. And that is what seems to have happened in the case of suspected or admitted (depending on your point of view) terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, pictured below. For those of you do not know the story, Posada seems to have been involved in the mid air bombing of a Venezuelan jetliner in the 1970's. There is evidence to support the charges and Venezuela wants to put him on trial. Posada however is unavailable to Venezuela because he is walking around the United States as a free man. Now just how is that possible? Maybe it is because the evidence seems to implicate the United States in the bombing as well. Maybe it is because Posada was and remains dedicated to removing Fidel Castro from office in Cuba and the Cuban political lobby is very strong. Maybe it is because Posada was a former employee of the CIA. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the Bush Administration is not moving to extradite Posada to Venezuela, despite recently declassified documents from the National Security Archive that point to his involvement in the bombing. 73 people died in that bombing. We are not moving to detain him as a known or suspected terrorist. And we are not pursuing any charges against him at all even though he is in the country illegally. In light of our President's own words of September 2001, why are we harboring this man? Is there one standard for the U.S. and one for other countries? You decide.