diplomacy – Page 7 – Andy Sternberg

December 16, 2006

Where Do They Go from Guantanamo?

In an effort to build a case for realistic hindsight, it’s high time to research the post- (if not pre-) 9/11 paths of current, former (and future?) Guantanamo Bay detainees in the “War on Terror.”

The AP sets an intriguing foundation for research/interrogation into the what/why with this report regarding the status of the 360 or so men released from detention since the January 2002 opening of Camp X-Ray @ Gitmo:

Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.

The WaPo’s A01 leads with compelling CIA testimony revealing some details of the spiriting away of alleged miscreants known as (my fave term of this young century) “extraordinary rendition.”

The June 2006 wiretapped exchange between two Italian secret agents uncovers plans to hand over suspects, including Abu Omar to the Americans. Unfortunate to read, but remarks from U.S. diplomats — namely John B. Bellinger, a legal adviser to Sec. State Rice, show a backwards recognition of circumstances, complete with denial and the notion that the U.S. still retains it’s powers of intimidation, etc:

“On the negative side of the ledger, we do continue to have these hysterical, inflated allegations denouncing the United States that unfortunately do fan the flames of suspicion and anti-Americanism.”

A series of question marks pop up — the road to mapping out this world-spanning web of alleged terror-management is taking shape. As active duty soldiers themselves begin taking a stand against the Long War , the U.S. government still contends it’s in a position to muzzle any and all dissent in the name of national security (whatever that is).

My preliminary sketchings include this map of the birthplaces of about half of the 759 detainees that passed through or remain at Guantanamo as documented by the Pentagon last May (see this .pdf).

As the big ugly picture becomes clearer, hopefully logic, remorse and reality will take some effect — as the WaPo also reports today, Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who was illegally deported by America and tortured in Syria remains on the U.S. “watch list.” All this in spite of the Canadian government’s $16 million judicial probe into Arar’s torture case His lawyers are asking that Ottawa compensate him $37 million (CDN dollars, I assume) for Canada’s cooperation with the U.S. in handing him over.

How pulselessly innocent must one be to not be presumed guilty? Will the Supreme Court find it’s own pulse? (see Hamdan / 2006 MCA)

December 3, 2006

Rumsfeld: ‘Be More Like Saddam’

Former SecDef Donald Rumsfeld evoked his madman self one more time in a memo submitted to the president prior to his “resignation” last month. The NYT has the story and the full memo.

Is Rumsfeld getting sympathy if not credit for what reads as a wholly ridiculous “sorry, buddy, I lied, we ARE losing” mea culpa?

Personally, I can’t seem to get past this particular passage:

Provide money to key political and religious leaders (as Saddam Hussein did), to get them to help us get through this difficult period.

It’s beyond me why this memo is grabbing headlines and moreso why it was considered by Baker’s Iraq Study Group. Their report will be released this week — its recommendations are expected to be resisted by the White House. But as evidenced by Paul Richter’s blunt reporting in today’s L.A. Times, Middle East leaders have had enough of Bush and his boys:

instead of flaunting stronger ties and steadfast American influence, the president’s journey found friends both old and new near a state of panic. Mideast leaders expressed soaring concern over upheavals across the region that the United States helped ignite through its invasion of Iraq and push for democracy — and fear that the Bush administration may make things worse.

In lieu of wasting anymore time on this rubbish, I’ll refer you to D-Day

November 17, 2006

U.S. Media Jumps Gun on ‘Freed Hostages’ Report

Sometimes it’s so predictable that a local Iraqi provincial governor could be misinformed, overly optimistic, or fearing for his life when he releases a statement via AP such as:

“Police were able to free two of the foreigners kidnapped and they are in good health,” al-Waili said in a telephone interview. He said he thought they were Americans but could not yet confirm their nationality.

The wire copy ends by clarifying that U.S. officials could not confirm that statement, but apparently CNN, MSNBC, and everyone else failed to read that far before changing their headlines from 5 abducted (four Americans and one Austrian, who is reported killed – or perhaps one of the Americans was killed) to Police free 2 hostages.

Not so surprising, of course, a couple hours later when the revised AP copy reads:

A top Iraqi police official in Basra said none of the five kidnapped security company employees had been freed. He claimed the provincial governor, who announced the release of two of the hostages, had confused separate incidents in the region involving private security forces.

In the time it took me to write this — MSNBC has reverted back to the original headline but I was able to capture these screenshots from CNN and AOL. A big problem in Iraq reportingn that I have seen is the confusion regarding specific events (which can repeat themselves on a daily basis) and the time or day it occurred (Baghdad time is UTC+3, or 11 hours ahead of Los Angeles).

Therefore, when hostages are released — it cannot be assumed to be the same hostages. 14 contractors were abducted Thursday and it seems there is another group of contract security workers being mentioned, such as the reported killing of a British security guard. I can’t even follow these reports are so erratic, inconsistent and all over the place.

And let’s not forget that earlier this week, 150 Baghdad civilians were abducted and are being freed, tortured, killed and/or still held hostage.

Let’s get it on, fact-checkers and online news editors and break these headlines more responsibly!

UPDATE: After 2+ hours of making me nervous that I was blowing the story myself, CNN finally changed the story back to 5 hostages, none released, and blamed Iraq for the bad report despite the fact that they were the only government or news outlet continuing to claim that 2 hostages were freed…