Month: March 2004

Yesterday’s big news in the War on Terror (or, more likely, small news, if, like us, you’re still focusing the lion’s share of your attention on Martha’s impending lockdown) was the return of five British prisoners to the U.K. on Tuesday, after their having spent the past two years in American custody in Guantanamo Bay. Two years of imprisonment, mind you, without having been charged with a crime, save for some vague language about “enemy” this, “combatant” that.
Here’s the stunning aspect of this case, however: while four of the men are still being questioned about their activities in Afghanistan, one of the prisoners in question, a mere few hours after landing on his home soil, was released from custody yesterday. This from the Guardian:

A fifth man, Jamal Udeen, also known as Jamal al Harith, from Manchester, was released without charge last night. His solicitor Robert Lizar said his client wanted the US authorities to “answer for the injustice which he has suffered”.

Just who is this vile terrorist/enemy combatant that was in some way indirectly responsible for the events of September 11th, 2001? The Guardian continues:

The 36-year-old convert, who was born Ronald Fiddler, left Manchester to go backpacking in Pakistan in September 2001. Within three weeks, coalition forces had found him in jail in Kandahar, Afghanistan; he said the Taliban had jailed him, believing he was a spy.

Injustice, indeed. This huge credibility gap in the U.S. government’s assertions on progress made in the War on Terror™ apparently doesn’t warrant coverage in the Times, the Post, or any other American media outlet. Oh, wait, my bad: there’s this Reuters story linked from the Times’ website.
What does the Reuters piece assert?

If all five are freed without charge, as some lawyers are predicting, the government may face questions on why it had taken more than two years to get them out. With tabloid newspapers eagerly competing for rights to their stories, the “Guantanamo Five” have a ready-made platform to vent anger.

Five down, and 600 to go.

OK, so they’ve done this before, and they’ll likely do it again…but you have to wonder. Is this web publishing software trying too hard?
(with thanks to Jeff)

Pictured, L to R: a scene from today’s delayed signing of Iraq’s post-invasion temporary constitution, and a scene from the September 1787 signing of the post-liberation United States’ constitution.

Awww, John…We hear that you’ve been hospitalized with a bout of the ol’ gallstone pancreatitis, and for that, we’re truly sorry. We are, however, thankful that you have healthcare, unlike millions of uninsured Americans. And, if worse comes to worse, we’re sure you can find someone to help foot the bill, as you did when you were merely a senator from Missouri in the 1990s:

“Between 1994 and 1998 the pharmaceutical industry, insurance industry and various anti-consumer healthcare lobbies paid out nearly $1 million in contributions to Ashcroft’s reelection campaign. Ashcroft returned the favor on multiple occasions: Four times in the last year he voted against prescription-drug benefits for Medicaid recipients; twice he helped kill the bipartisan Patients’ Bill of Rights, which would have allowed consumers to sue managed-care companies for delayed or denied care. He also backed a phony business-sponsored Patients’ Bill of Rights that would prohibit consumers from suing their managed-care providers.”

Come on, John, get well soon! Everyday you’re out of commission as our Attorney General is a day that America is that much more unsafe; the USA PATRIOT Act and its sequel both feel somehow less substantive; Gitmo feels less secure, and we fear that hundreds of prisoners may in fact receive an actual trial; Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi might as well be on parole, and–this is embarrassing–we’re blushing as we gaze upon Justice’s exposed bosom, heaving ever-so-nakedly in your absence.
Let the eagle soar, John! Let it soar!

(Click the thumbnail above to enlarge the image)
As this CNN.com screenshot from this morning’s headlines indicate, sometimes web publishing software seems to reveal some sort of virtual Lewis Black residing within–vitriolic anger and sarcasm pushing forth to convey a broader message while working within the tedium of the mundane, i.e. code, technology, news, headlines, whatever…
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m not the one who’s conflated the developments in Iraq with those of the War on Terror™. That was the Bush administration’s initiative, you’ll recall.

According to a caption in today’s New York Times, the AP Photo above shows “Looters on Monday at the house of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, where family and school pictures lay among the debris.” (Haitian Rebels Enter Capital; Aristide Bitter, by Tim Weiner and Lydia Polgreen)
What is not stated, is that the painting in the foreground depicts Toussaint L’Ouverture, the revolutionary who lead the slave revolt that brought freedom to Haiti, the first free Black republic in the world.
This would be like seeing a painting of Thomas Jefferson or George Washington amid a pile of post-revolution trash at the White House and calling it “personal effects and ephemera.”
See also: The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (non-fiction account);
All Souls’ Rising, by Madison Smartt Bell (fictionalized account).