at-Largely

United States vs. Human Rights - Bradley Mannging forced to strip naked...

The US continues to sink closer and closer to third-world human rights standards:

Last night, PFC Manning was inexplicably stripped of all clothing by the Quantico Brig.  He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours.  At 5:00 a.m., the Brig sounded the wake-up call for the detainees.  At this point, PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell. 

The Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) arrived shortly after 5:00 a.m.  When he arrived, PFC Manning was called to attention.  The DBS walked through the facility to conduct his detainee count.  Afterwards, PFC Manning was told to sit on his bed.  About ten minutes later, a guard came to his cell to return his clothing.

This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification.  It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated.  PFC Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight.  No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation.

Bradley Manning facing 22 new counts...

How far will the US government go to cover-up its own corruption and silence those with a conscience? This far:

"The Army on Wednesday filed 22 new charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of illegally downloading tens of thousands of classified U.S. military and State Department documents that were then publicly released by WikiLeaks, military officials told NBC News.

The most serious of the new charges is "aiding the enemy," a capital offense that could carry a potential death sentence."

Make no mistake, prosecuting a whistleblower who came forward to expose government wrongdoing and corruption is a declaration of war on a free press.

 

Scott Horton to Obama Butt Out of Libya!

Horton tells Obama to stay out of Libya...

Bob Woodward "Rumsfeld's memoir is one big clean-up job"

Rummy won't be happy about this:

"Rumsfeld's memoir is one big clean-up job, a brazen effort to shift blame to others -- including President Bush -- distort history, ignore the record or simply avoid discussing matters that cannot be airbrushed away. It is a travesty, and I think the rewrite job won't wash.

The Iraq War is essential to the understanding of the Bush presidency and the Rumsfeld era at the Pentagon. In the book, Rumsfeld tries to push so much off on Bush. That is fair because Bush made the ultimate decisions. But the record shows that it was Rumsfeld stoking the Iraq fires -- facts he has completely left out of his memoir.

For example, I reported in my 2004 book, Plan of Attack (p. 25), that at 2:40 p.m. on 9/11, with the smoke and dust still filling the Pentagon, according to the notes of two of Rumsfeld's top aides, Rumsfeld mused about whether to hit "S.H. @ same time," not only bin Laden. One note taker reaffirmed this in an interview with the 9/11 Commission, and said that "S.H." referred to Saddam Hussein. (p. 335 of Commission report, and p. 559 footnote 63). None of this is in Rumsfeld's book. But he does cite the aides' handwritten notes for other quotations he uses in his book to recount that day. (p. 343 of his book, and p. 759 notes 30, 31 and 32. The notes are of senior Rumsfeld aides Victoria Clarke and Stephen A. Cambone.)"

Gaddafi won't be going quietly into the night...

The latest from Libya

Starving the people:

Living conditions worsened in Libya and aid groups warned of a growing humanitarian crisis Tuesday as the battle between rebels and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi shut down transportation, kept businesses closed and forced people to stay in their homes.

Conditions were particularly dire in rebel-held Zawiya, a city west of Tripoli where anti-Gadhafi protesters have fought back bloody government counterattacks for nearly a week. Residents reached by phone said pro-Gadhafi forces had set up checkpoints on the city's east and west sides, halting the flow of food and medicine.

The Libyan military splits into warring factions:

Libyan army units that have rebelled against Moammar Gadhafi are organizing under a unified council to launch an attack against forces still loyal to the leader, a rebel officer said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the West had ideas:

Despite calls for a "no-fly zone" to prevent air attacks on civilians and a deeper refugee crisis, Western leaders appear to hope that increasing political pressure, more shows of force and offers of help to rebels will be enough.

The constraints on intervention are not so much military as political, requiring a United Nations mandate that most analysts see as unlikely without a significant deterioration in Libya, where at least 2,000 people are estimated to have died.

Military analysts say it would be relatively straightforward for Washington and its allies to mount operations against Libya with the resources they have in the region.

Many ideas:

Several Libyan diplomats have been quoted by news outlets as saying these forces are setting up bases in the eastern cities of Benghazi and Tobruk -- the two oil-rich cities that have been liberated by the opposition forces.

British and US special forces entered Libyan port cities of Benghazi and Toburk on February 23 and 24.

Three Indian navy warships are also expected to be deployed in the region. Earlier on Monday, the US military confirmed it has deployed naval and air forces around Libya.

A Pentagon spokesman said various contingency plans are considered to provide options and flexibility once decisions are made.

Does anyone actually think that the major concern for Western interests is helping the rebels? The reality is that the US and other Western interests are dispatching to protect their commercial interests - read that to mean oil.  I don' think Gaddafi will go quietly into the night, which is probably what the US is hoping for. Otherwise, how else is all of this military activity to be justified to the American people?

U.S dispatches aircraft carrier to waters near Libya

Buckle your seat belts:

The United States is moving naval and air forces, including an aircraft carrier, into the Mediterranean Sea near Libya, U.S. officials said Monday, as the Obama administration and its allies consider how to respond to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's brutal efforts to suppress a widespread rebellion among civilians and army troops.

The U.S. decision comes as Gadhafi appeared to be making a concerted effort to retake control of Zawiya, a town about 30 miles west of Tripoli that has been in rebel hands since last week. Two people reached separately by phone said heavy fighting had broken out in the early evening Monday as militias loyal to Gadhafi attacked from both the east and the west.

And Russia, with the control of the Ukranian Black Sea fleet, is going to stand for this? Gazprom is going to stand still for this?

Revisiting the "The Lockerbie Deal" and Libya...

The UK is very concerned about current human rights violations in Libya, as indeed they should be. America has also suddenly arisen from its silent slumber to condemn the violent attacks by Libyan forces against Libyan citizens. In an ideal world, the US and the Brits should easily be able to point at Qaddafi's crimes against humanity and condemn them. But we live in the desert of the real and as such, the people condemning this violence are the very people who have long provided material support for it: both the UK and the US have provided arms and training to Libya for several years now.

In January of this year, a little discussed but very important article came out by David Rose that gives a glimpse into how such arms deals with despots are agreed upon. You will not be surprised to find that human rights issues have nothing to do with contracts of this nature.

In 2009 the convicted Lockerbie bomber was sent home to Libya from a Scottish prison on grounds of “compassionate release”—he had only three months to live, authorities said. A year and a half later the man is still alive—and a Vanity Fair investigation reveals new details about the business interests and private dealings that lay behind the prisoner’s release. At the heart of the matter: the cozy and “profitable relationships” between the Blair government and Qaddafi’s Libya.

<snip>

Like a medieval prince, Blair was accompanied on his journey by a retinue not just of government officials but of merchants—the top executives of several major U.K.-based companies. The companies included General Dynamics U.K., the military-hardware and communications specialists; the missile manufacturer MBDA, which was hoping to sell Qaddafi its Jernas air-defense system; and the petroleum giant BP. All three firms had been assured by the Libyans that their executives would accompany Blair into Qaddafi’s tent, where the colonel would approve the deals they had been negotiating.

<snip>

As for General Dynamics, it had to wait another 11 months, until May 2008, before Libya finally signed a contract worth $165 million to equip the Libyan army’s elite second brigade, which was commanded by Qaddafi’s son Khamis. In poker, there is a stratagem known as “deep stack,” in which a rich player with mediocre cards intimidates opponents into folding by raising the stakes to levels so high that they dare not call his bluff. And that, says one frequent visitor to Libya, is the way Qaddafi does business. But if Tony Blair found himself outplayed in 2007, he gave no hint of it when he took his leave. “The relationship between Libya and Britain has completely transformed,” he said. “The commercial relationship, as you can see by this huge investment deal today, is simply going now from strength to strength.” Blair knew what he was talking about. He was about to become one of its beneficiaries.

<snip>

There has long been a symbiotic connection between BP—the biggest corporation listed on the London Stock Exchange—and the British government. Tony Blair’s first trip to Libya came in March 2004—a reward for Qaddafi’s decision at the end of the previous year to give up his attempts to acquire nuclear armaments and other weapons of mass destruction (W.M.D.). John Browne, BP’s chief executive officer at the time, had already been appointed to the House of Lords. Now Blair gave BP the opening that was to lead to the exploration deal by taking Browne to meet Qaddafi. BP’s deal was still some way from being done by the time Lord Browne was forced to resign, in 2007, in the aftermath of a sex scandal. But having made at least one further visit to Qaddafi, he later said: “It did not happen but I think I got quite a way forward.”

I urge you to read the whole thing and closely and keep in mind that General Dynamics is a US company with a branch in the UK - the branch involved in the deal. It should come as no surprise that Gaddafi's assets were frozen by Swiss banks only recently. It seems a despot's money is good so long as the US and UK can prop him up.